Planners and the Pride Factor: The Case of the Electric Escalator in Medellín

The outdoor electric escalator in Medellín's Comuna 13, part of an Integrated Urban Project aimed at bridging the city's socio‐spatial divide, did not fully accomplish the project's goal of increasing the mobility of 12,000 people living in the area, nor did it make a significant contribution to diminishing social inequalities. The escalator project can be considered a prestigious solution to an ill‐defined problem that did not take people's mobility patterns into account. Although the project succeeded in increasing civic pride and improving Medellín's image of modernity and progress, it also led to new social inequalities.