Urdesa

With time, not only mansions were constructed, but smaller middle-class houses as well and Urdesa lost its high society status.

The quarter grew over the years and today it is the north downtown with many retail stores, restaurants, bars and traffic.

For this reason, Urdesa has become very transited and the main route to go from the residential Los Ceibos and all the neighborhoods around it to go downtown or to Samborondón.

In 1997 the then-mayor León Febres-Cordero achieved what seemed impossible, namely getting the owners of the properties to renew their home fronts, especially the fences, because they were virtually on the public sidewalk leaving merely few centimeters for pedestrians to walk.

After initial problems with the proprietors, who complained about high costs for removing only a meter or even a few centimeters, the then-mayor announced that if they didn't do it on themselves, the city hall personnel would do it by force.

That scared most of the home owners and today, all of them have constructed new fences and there's finally enough sidewalks in order for pedestrians to walk.

Today there are many nationalities in the neighborhood including Lebanese, Turks, Indians, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Romanians and Iraqis, also there is a new wave of Immigrants from Syria fleeing the civil war.