Restoring Old Havana; Cuba Uses Free-Market Methods to Revive Historic District
When Cuba spiraled into an economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s, an ambitious project to renovate Old Havana, the dilapidated core of this nation's cultural heritage, appeared to be moribund.</br></br>As the government realigned its priorities to salvage a political system that for decades had relied on billions of dollars in aid from its Communist allies, vital restoration of the old Spanish port settlement came to a virtual standstill. Clusters of brittle colonial-era edifices, such as cathedrals and monuments, continued to decay. Some collapsed, particularly during heavy tropical downpours.</br></br>Today, the revitalization of Old Havana is thriving as a largely self-sufficient enterprise that underscores Cuba's ability to attract badly needed hard currency, albeit not without feeling the sting of punitive measures imposed by the United States.</br></br>The success of the reconstruction plan stems from a series of recent economic and political reforms that, among other things, decentralized control of the project, giving the agency that oversees it, the city historian's office, greater independence from the state's inefficient bureaucracy and the ability to raise financing through free market means without having to rely on scarce government resources.</br></br>Administered by a special company established by the historian's office, the funds come mostly from profits earned by restaurants, cafes, hotels and other businesses in the historical quarter that have become part of Cuba's flourishing tourism industry.