These are increasingly covered with new jerry-built houses that cling precariously to steep slopes so close to the vertical as to be almost cliffs.
Existing roads suffice for local traffic, he says, arguing that bridge construction could endanger the vineyards, which perch precariously on steep slopes and are fed water by a delicate system of natural irrigation.
With many poor residents living in tin-roof shacks that sit precariously on steep ravines and with much of the construction in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in the country of questionable quality, the expectation was that the quake caused major damage to buildings and significant loss of life.
Two of them, the floods in Australia and Sri Lanka, may be connected with a naturally occurring climatic phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, called La Niña, whereas the landslides in Brazil are the result of heavy, localised downpours falling on badly constructed homes built precariously on steep hillsides.
In less than 10 minutes we arrive at a natural infinity pool, precariously held from a steep drop by a mere few metres of rock.
Today, a bodyguard walked behind the mayor, as he set off into the narrow alleys of a local township - wooden shacks precariously balanced on a steep hillside.
When the buses of music's biggest names aren't precariously winding their way up the steep entry to the 6450-foot stage, people from around the world show up to hike and bike Red Rock's trails, practice yoga in its stands and to run up and down its 69 rows of benches.
Here, perhaps a thousand makeshift shacks, thrown together with whatever came to hand pieces of wood, corrugated iron, bits of cardboard cling precariously to the muddy side of a steep hill.
He danced down the steep paths between shacks clinging precariously to the mountainside, surrounded by a cheering crowd of Rio's poorest citizens, and belted out his hit single "They don't care about us".
On top of the usual demands on transport and accommodation posed by big sporting events, this one is being held in a city where much housing is perched precariously, without foundations, on the sides of steep hills, and where crime rates are astronomical.
