Rosario's development; interview with Miguel Lifschitz, mayor of Rosario, Argentina

Abstract

This paper draws on an interview with Miguel Lifschitz, who is in his second term as mayor of Rosario, Argentina's third largest city. It describes the city's strategic planning and the support it provided for local economic development and for the large expansion of public space — with the city government working with private landowners to restore the riverbank area and create many new parks and other public spaces. It also describes the municipal government's social policies, including the modernization and expansion of health care and the introduction of a city police force, and its support for participatory budgeting and decentralization, including the role of municipal district centres that concentrate many public services and support community programmes in each of the city's six districts. The mayor also describes the difficulties his administration has faced — for instance, its limited capacity to reduce unemployment (although the city government has done much to support local economic development) and the difficulties of working with national and provincial governments and neighbouring municipalities controlled by different political parties.