A woman leaves her house before dawn. She lives on the outskirts of the city, where housing is more affordable, but the real cost is paid in time and health. More than two hours of travel, breathing smoke and stuck in traffic. She arrives at work tired, works eight hours, and then repeats the same route. When she gets home, her children are already asleep.

Her city takes years off her life.
Elsewhere in the city, a young man wakes up without hurry. He lives in a neighborhood where his work, the café where he has breakfast, and the market where he shops are just minutes from his home. After work, he meets friends in the park. His city gives him time, mobility, and quality of life.

The best cities inspire, connect, and multiply opportunities. They drive us to discover and develop our potential, offer options, and bring us closer to others with whom to create, collaborate, and coexist. Currently, Guatemala City serves more than 3.5 million people. Of these, only half live in the city, and the rest has to come in and out daily. This represents high costs and life wear and tear. 
To address these challenges, it is essential to bring housing closer to work. This is achieved by diversifying job and service options in peripheral areas where there are homes, as well as encouraging the development of affordable housing in urban areas where there are jobs and population density remains low.

To increase density and desirability, key infrastructure is required: water, energy, waste management, lighting, transportation, green areas, walking spaces, and other amenities that enrich the experience of living in the city. All this is possible through complete neighborhoods, development incentives, and civic action.

Complete neighborhoods combine services, uses, and mobility options at accessible distances, which can be shared to optimize resources, reduce costs, and maximize benefits per person. These neighborhoods can consolidate in new and existing areas, raising the quality of life, safety, urban resilience, and the freedom to choose where and how to live.

Development incentives facilitate investment in the construction of housing, businesses, and facilities in strategic and attractive locations for the market, based on data and trends that reduce risks and enhance profitability.

Civic action combines the efforts of organizations, municipalities, developers, and citizens to generate win-win models where projects that improve urban quality of life and strengthen the community are promoted.

Demanding more parking, subsidizing transport to the periphery, or building more lanes and overpasses addresses the symptoms but not the causes. To be effective, we must understand urban dynamics and thus generate root solutions. Increasing proximity, creating accessible infrastructure, sharing services, and creating attractive conditions for investment are some of these solutions. 
We live in a beautiful city, with refreshing winds, ravines filled with water, biodiversity, stunning views of the volcanoes, and mainly: capable people. 

Building cities is an act of empathy and commitment to those who make them up and to the generations that will come. 

We can create the cities we want with a positive and proactive mindset. 
How do we want our cities to be in 20 years? 
The decision starts today. Let’s define what we want and improve life in the city together.