Davidglen77 said:
One area that hasn't been mentioned is San Nicolás which is technically part of the centro and/or Congreso. It's the area delimited by Cerrito (9 de Julio) and Callao from Rivadavia (plaza del Congreso) to Av. Corrientes.
This is an area full of architectural treasures, some of which date from the late 1800's many neo-classical buildings from the early 1920's, the "belle epoque" of Buenos Aires, capital federal.
Unfortunately, this neighborhood has suffered many horrible problems and decay and is now full of abandoned buildings, people living in the streets, crime of all kinds, robberies and assaults on a daily basis, and things in this area are getting progressively worse. How can this be allowed to happen in the center of the city with so many tourists wandering around and taking pictures of the decay of the city? Why aren't the people living in the streets taken to some kind of shelter, with the amount of abandoned buildings around couldn't they be given some kind of shelter-even temporary until a better solution is found to their problem. There are 100s of children living in the streets and eating from garbage cans right in front of the Congreso building WHAT IS GOING ON WHERE ARE THE POLITICIANS NOW??
Something along the lines of this area (or very close by):
Last October I was walking from Plaza de Mayo towards 9 de Julio on a Sunday (the long weekend), and decided to avoid walking on Avenida de Mayo because of the throngs of tourists. I cut down a side street and then turned onto Rivadavia for a change of pace.
It being Sunday in this part of town, it was pretty quiet and there were maybe three or four other people in eye sight, but I always keep my guard up just in case (living in Baltimore trained me well
) and I noticed a plaza on the right hand side named after Roberto Arlt.
For some odd reason that I still cannot justify, I decided to pop in and see what it was, but two Argentines sitting on the side of the path leading into the plaza looked at me and my danger-sense peaked. They didn't make any move and I acknowledged them, backed up a few steps towards the exit, and then one of them warned me not to go in and then explained that, that plaza was usually full of homeless, paco users, and other people who, they assured me, would rob me in a heartbeat.
Needless to say, I high tailed it out of there, crossed back over to Avenida de Mayo and kept going.
I had only been around the Congreso area once at night after visiting with a friend (who walked me to the bus stop, waited with me for an good 45 minutes for the damned thing to come), and I admit, the irony of seeing so many homeless right in front of the Congreso struck me as horrible. Right under the eye of the government and I often asked myself, "Do they have no shame seeing their fellow Argentines starve?"
I often ask myself that same question about the U.S.
Different scale, but something very similar and it's absolutely heart wretching.
Oddly enough, thinking about it, I felt more unsafe (uncomfortable) walking around Palermo at night from time to time with a friend because of all the reports of motochorros taking advantage of the drunk university students... whereas walking around Boedo or sometimes Barracas felt less unnerving.
When I told a professor that, he just rolled his eyes.
