Spruced up Panama park will honor namesake

WORK  on the rehabilitation of Parque Urracá on Avenida Balboa is 60 percent advanced and Bella Vista’s  near 100-year-old green lung will be re-opened in November  in time for the installation of the Christmas wonderland  lights that drew scores  of thousands  of visitors last year

Once recognized as a children’s playland and the “pretty face” of the city, the park was a center for baseball and basketball, and a place for family walks, but successive municipal leaders let  its age show and the facilities deteriorated and were susceptible to flooding.

With  $2.2 million of the windfall from the government’s decentralization plan, Panama Mayor, Jose Isobel Blandon   decided to include the park in his plan for the city’s  revitalization. plan When it  is  finished, The green lung will have new benches, an upgraded basketball court, baseball diamond and playground, a bicycle patha a new lighting system, improved drainage and  it will  finally be home   to a statue of Urracá, –  the leader of the   Ngäbe-Buglé region- the man  it was named after .

On Monday, September 25 the planting of  86 varieties of blooming trees like jacarandas and guayacanes will begin. The initial plants will be three meters tall.

“In addition to helping the landscaping of the area, they will be fundamental to providing habitats for urban birds and other species, “said Ennio Arcia, the mayor’s director of Environmental Management.

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