Abstract

Access to urban equipment and services has gained centrality in the Chilean urban discussion, being a fundamental element of the policy, indicators and the bill on urban social integration. In this way, the Chilean State recognizes that to democratize the quality of life and human development it is not enough to ensure a home, but must promote functionally complex residential environments. The article measures the accessibility to urban equipment and its relationship with the distribution of socioeconomic groups in two communes of the Valparaíso Metropolitan Area: Quilpué and Villa Alemana. The results show an unbalanced urbanization pattern, with high coverage of urban services such as schools and health centers, but deficient in the distribution of opportunities for leisure, sport and culture, which translates into a factor of reproduction of social inequalities, since that deprives medium and vulnerable groups of opportunities for recreation and culture in the vicinity of their place of residence.