publications

‘Caracas Metro Cable: Bridging the Formal/Informal City’

‘Caracas Metro Cable: Bridging the Formal/Informal City’
Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner

Caracas is located some 1,000 meters above sea level, in a 20 kilometre wide valley. It is a megalopolis of 800 square kilometers, home to nearly six million people. To the extent that the rest of the world knows Caracas, they associate it with Venezuela’s staggering economic growth, its membership in OPEC, and the machinations and manipulations of its leadership. This is one Caracas. But Caracas is two cities: the formal city of tall buildings, gated homes, enormous wealth, and private transportation, and the informal city. The latter, sprawling to the east, covers an area four times larger than the 1950s-era metropolitan boundaries and is home to almost one million families.