Pollution in Panama, PTY

I have been living in Panama for the past two years and have been visiting since 2006.  I chose Panama for all the reasons that we all read about in the "where to live or do business offshore" reports.  Most of these reasons are valid.  Some of them are not.  This post is about the pollution in Panama City - a topic that few, if any, of the pro-Panama pundits discuss in their "dream retirement haven" reports.
There are two areas that do not have this pollution (or the traffic) and are, in my opinion, the only places in PTY worth living:  Costa del Este (a modern, master-planned community) and Clayton/Ancon (near the US Embassy compound).  Pretty much all other "high end" neighborhoods (some pockets of moderate cleanliness, like San Francisco area) have the pollution problem I am reporting, and it gets worse as you drop down to the lower-income communities.

I am not a pollution expert, but I know filth when I see it.  It is not difficult to identify in PTY.  Some of the most important contributors are:  vehicle emmissions, construction projects, trash not being disposed/collected properly.  The photo above shows black death smoke coming from a pickup.  This is not the exception in PTY.  Besides the new buses, almost every commercial truck, especially the diablo rojos, blow out clouds of black smoke.  Cars are not much better, with taxis often very guilty of the filth.  The excuse I hear is that the grade of gasoline in Panama is inferior, mixed with ethanol or some nonsense, which causes the unhealthy emmissions.
W. Carrera Loza wrote in his "Environmental Crisis Looms Over Panama" report that,

"In the city, air pollution levels exceed international norms of acceptability, with about 90 percent of the problem coming from vehicular emissions, according to Vaco Duke Hernández, the deputy director of the University of Panama's Specialized Analysis Unit. "Study results show that a great number of Panamanians are exposed to dangerous concentrations of airborne toxins every day," he said, "especially those who commute on our main streets and avenues, or who live along them."

Duke Hernández added that the pollution is most concentrated during the rainy months of May through mid-December, which also roughly coincides with the Panamanian school year, and that children are one of the population sectors that's most sensitive to such pollutants.

"We have to intensify our efforts to inspect and remove vehicles that contaminate the air and become serious public health threats,"he recommended. Other necessary steps, in Duke Hernández's opinion, are the extension of the urban air monitoring system to measure a greater number of pollutants, measure in ways that render "real time" data, and measure around schools, hospitals and other critical institutions."

The above photo is in Punta Paitilla, one of the "high end" neighborhoods.  In fact, this green disgusting sewer that is on permanent overflow is right in front of "The Landmark"- one of the most luxurious buildings in PTY.

Photo above is right across the street from the previous pic, The Landmark.  By the way, these backed-up sewers are common all over the city, and they smell like, well - backed-up rotten sewer slime.

This photo above is at Plaza Pacifica, the shopping mall at the entrance of Punta Pacifica, the "lower Manhattan" of Panama City, where the Trump Ocean Club is located.  As you can see from the splash from the tire of this car, this permanent puddle of filthy water is so dark black filthy that it amazes me how so much dirt can be concentrated in this same puddle day after day.

The above is a fountain of sewer overflow on the prized Avenida Balboa, right next to one of the most luxurious buildings in town.

Cincuentenario in San Francisco, above and below.

I drive through this disgusting pothole puddle of dirty water almost every day.  This is NOT in a poor neighborhood. It is also a crater of a pothole.  There are so many car-wrecking potholes in PTY, but that is another story.  This is in San Francisco, an upscale area.

Numbeo.com reports in their pollution index dated August 2013 that Panama City receives a score of 49.85 out of 100.  That´s pretty bad. You can read the details of the report here

http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/country_result.jsp?country=Panama

In conclusion, despite all of the great things about Panama, from the natural beauty outside the city to the money-making opportunities for entrepreneurs inside the capital, I do not recommend PTY as a top place to live.  It is no longer cheap, so why live in Panama City with its filth, traffic and other obstacles when you can live in a city like Las Vegas or Denver or Charlotte or any city in Texas, with superior infrastructure, entertainment, climate, etc -for less money?
In all fairness to PTY, developing countries don't do city life very well, and Panama does it better than most.  But if I were retiring I would not select a big city in a developing country.  Stay away from the Manilas, the San Joses, the Panama Citys, go beach or mountain. If you had to chose PTY, Costa del Este and Clayton are exempt from most of the problems the rest of the city has, but they are super expensive.

I don´t understand how Panama City keeps getting mentioned by the international living experts as a top destination to retire.  They can have all of the other benefits that the city offers in their pro-PTY arguments.  The traffic and pollution alone make it a terrible place to live.  I don't even have PTY in my top 100 cities in the world to live. I have said it before and I will say it now; if Panama City was in the United States, it would be ranked the worst city in America to live.  Yes, it is worse than Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago and the rest of the "worst cities in the US".  I can easily name 100 other cities that are better around the world.  Easily.

Panama City: Highest Vacancy Rate in Latin America

The World Property Channel reports that Panama City has by far the highest commercial vacancy rate in Latin America - at 30%.  No other city is even close.  My guess is that the "high end" commercial market is probably over 50%.

I took this picture this morning.  This is one of the nicest office buildings in PTY, located in Punta Pacifica - the "lower Manhattan" of Panama City.  As you can see, it appears as though the building is almost completely vacant.  I have been living here for two years and I noticed this building was already finished when I got here.  I am not sure when it was finished, but it has been at least two years now.  Still empty.

Yet, developers keep building.  This is another photo I took this morning.  In it there are at least 5 buildings under construction in and around the "Calle 50/Obarrio" area.  I take my Spanish lessons on the 32nd floor of the Global Bank Tower (right next to the F&F spiral but not shown in this pic).  I am not sure how this language school can afford the rent in such a high end luxury building, but then I noticed that half of the offices on the 32nd floor are vacant.
I am no expert, but I am sure the experts can explain the logic and reasoning behind the commercial and residential real estate development in Panama.

My bank in Panama since 2006 has been HSBC.  They are one of the largest and well known banks in the world, doing business in more countries than almost any other (Citibank has more).  They decided that Panama does not fit their business profile, and this year they sold their Panama business to Banistmo, a Colombian bank.
Maybe this means nothing.  But why would "the world's local bank" (HSBC's slogan) not want a part of Panama's opportunities - the country with the strongest economy and growth in Latin America?