HAVANA (AP) – Known for chaotic avenues filled with car-dodging pedestrians, balconies that discharge waterfalls onto sidewalks and reggaeton played at deafening volume, Havana wants to clean up its streets.
Havana authorities have passed new city codes meant to make streets around nearly three dozen commercial shopping zones more pleasant both for Cubans and the surging number of foreign tourists.
“You really see the deterioration,” said Mileidis Garcia, who sells pinatas and decorations for birthday parties around one of the capital’s busiest markets, one of the areas targeted by the new regulations. “The streets are filthy too,” she said, motioning to discarded scraps of paper, cookie wrappers, white plastic bags, soda cans and cigarette butts piled alongside her sidewalk.
She echoes a worry expressed by Cuban officials that such carelessness could indicate a lack of civic culture.
“It’s like there is no sense of ownership, it’s not your house, it’s the street,” Garcia said. “But the city is your home too.”