Ushuaia #4
There is a significant housing shortage here, and there are two answers to that. The first is subsidized housing, which seems to comprise a significant part of the housing supply here.
The other is that people clear out a tract of land and build an illegal house on it. If they can stick it out 10 years, then it becomes theirs.
The problem with this is that there are no services to these, at least at first. No electricity, no gas, no water or sewer. Electricity is usually the first to go in, and they can use propane and buy water, but sanitation relies on pit toilets – which have got to be difficult to create, given that there’s only about 6 inches of topsoil before you seem to get to some very hard bedrock!
The other is that people clear out a tract of land and build an illegal house on it. If they can stick it out 10 years, then it becomes theirs.
The problem with this is that there are no services to these, at least at first. No electricity, no gas, no water or sewer. Electricity is usually the first to go in, and they can use propane and buy water, but sanitation relies on pit toilets – which have got to be difficult to create, given that there’s only about 6 inches of topsoil before you seem to get to some very hard bedrock!
A lot of the rest of the city is as one would expect in a place where cruise ships routinely dock. There are tons of souvenir shops, galleries, as well as restaurants, ice cream places, etc. – basically, downtown Blowing Rock. Having all that stuff that we could possibly use for the rest of our lives, we did not substantially contribute to the local economy.
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