MEXICO CITY BRIEFING February 2005

News this month

Still on top

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico City's Teflon mayor, is riding high. The man who is known as “AMLO” recently won 95% support in a referendum to determine whether he should serve the rest of his term, which ends in 2006. Despite scandals among his closest advisors, the threat of a trial over a city land-deal and constant jibes from Vicente Fox, Mexico's president, Mr López Obrador remains one of Mexico's most popular politicians. The leftish mayor tops the polls of presidential hopefuls for the 2006 election.

Exasperated by the opposition's calls for his resignation, Mr López Obrador organised this referendum to repudiate them, a tactic that proved helpful to him in 2002. A state-wide telephone poll asked respondents to “Say yes or no to López Obrador.” Around 531,000 votes were cast, representing 10% of the state's voting population. At 95%, Mr López Obrador finished a half-point behind his 2002 referendum: not bad for the fifth year of a six-year term.

Year of the Bike?

Presiding over a smog-filled, traffic-ridden city, local officials have long tried to convince residents to swap their cars for bicycles. These optimistic, perhaps quixotic, efforts will soon receive a fresh impetus: Mexico's director-general of Urban Woodland and Environmental Education has declared 2005 the Year of the Bicycle. Among the promised initiatives for intrepid urban cyclists are pit stops along 90 kilometres of dedicated bicycle lanes, offering water, compressed air and toilets. To make transporting cycles easier, special retractable bike holders will be imported from the United States and installed on the backs of city buses.

But don't expect a rush for bicycles. Bernardo Baranda, an official with the Centre for Sustainable Transport, admits that most of the capital's residents don't even know about the cycling lanes, inaugurated last year. Even if they did, would they use them? Although cycling offers health and environmental benefits, this is one instance where the risks may outweigh the rewards. In a city where the number of cars rises by 300,000 per year, alternative transport is clearly necessary; but with all those cars still on the roads, cyclists risk life, limb and lung.

Downtown bargains

This is a rare city where residents can lower their rents by moving to the centre of town. To stimulate growth in the downtrodden historic centre of Mexico City, Mr López Obrador is offering up to 100% discounts on a range of taxes and permits to people prepared to gamble on urban renewal. Permits for water installation and drainage will be free, as will building licenses and permits for commercial use of properties. Anyone who owns a property listed as an historic monument will not pay taxes on restoration work.

The offer's generosity is a measure of the mayor's desire to encourage businesses, shops and housing to move downtown. For decades, especially since the 1985 earthquake, the centre has been one of the city's scruffiest and most dangerous areas. In other cities, a centre's beautiful but crumbling old buildings would have been snapped up long ago. Here however, investors are loath to risk their money on structures that are slowly sinking, leaning at crazy angles as they subside into a former lake bed. It could take more than a free construction permit to tempt buyers.

Rubbish treasures

From tricycles to pre-Hispanic artefacts, Mexico City's main boating lake is coughing up its secrets. As part of the renovation of El Bosque de Chapultepec, the city's main park, the lake is being dredged for the first time in over 30 years. A sobering amount of rubbish is surfacing: two full truckloads came out in the first week, with clothes, lost oars, acres of plastic waste and soda bottles dating from the 1960s.

In fact, some of the trash is so old that the National Institute of Anthropology and History has been called in to sift through the junk. Because of the potential archaeological treasures—the area lies near the heart of the former Aztec capital—much of the dredging has been carried out with pick and shovel. Some pre-Columbian clay pots and bones have already emerged. In the meantime, the first section of the park is closed to visitors. The spruce-up's cost has already surpassed $3.5m, and is projected to rise to nearly $7m.

Catch if you can

February 2005

Luís Barragán House

Continuing

In case you needed more reasons to visit an excellent example of Luís Barragán's architecture, this house is now the first 20th-century building in Latin America to have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. Luís Barragán (1902-1988) is the undisputed genius of modern Mexican architecture. His style is bright and vernacular: the big, colourfully painted masses of his buildings are often linked by courtyards washed in sheets of water and carefully angled sunlight. The boldness of his style inspired a host of imitators, making him the dominant force in Mexican post-war buildings, plazas and gardens.

The Mexico City house and garden—finished in 1948—in which he lived and worked is an outstanding example of his style. UNESCO has called it “a masterpiece of the new developments in the Modern Movement”. There are now plans to restore and protect the building.

Casa Museo Luís Barragán, General Francisco Ramírez 14, Amplicación Daniel Garza. Open: Mon-Fri 10am–2pm and 4pm-6pm, Sat 10am-1pm. Tel: +52 (55) 5515-4908 or 5272-4945.