If we already live in a disordered city, we will barely survive in chaos: infinite traffic jams, noise, lack of water, pollution… The General Development Plan (PGD) for Mexico City, conceived by the new government, bodes nothing better. Following in the footsteps of the previous PGD project, which fortunately failed, the authorities intend for the local congress to approve this “ordering” project that will promote more real estate speculation and gentrification than we already suffer and have so heavily criticized.
The PGD: A Blueprint for Disorder?
The PGD, among other niceties, proposes to “redensify” areas of the city that have “sufficient” public services and infrastructure, under the pretext that new “nodes” of development will benefit us. However, as the PGD does not even mention the partial programs that protect the capital’s heritage and monument zones, areas like San Ángel, the center of Tlalpan, Polanco, Santa María Nativitas, and all the neighborhoods included in the 47 current partial programs could be devoured or besieged by real estate speculation and corruption.
The existing partial programs, achieved after years of work by specialists, residents, and authorities, cover heritage and monument zones that, due to their value for present and future society, for the city’s history and memory, require specific regulations governing land use, building height, and types of commercial activities permitted, in order to protect and preserve these areas. By overlooking the partial programs in the text of the PGD (which would be a law, and therefore mandatory), the authorities are opening a wide door to real estate speculators and to those who have sought, and continue to seek, to bypass norms and build high-rise buildings, hotels, nightclubs, shopping centers wherever they please, saturating neighborhoods that preserve churches, old houses, gardens, cobblestone streets, and, above all, a diversity of social strata and businesses-a plurality that favors human interaction.
San Ángel: A Case Study in Vulnerability
An example, already mentioned in the media, is the San Ángel area, included in the partial program that also protects San Ángel Inn and Tlacopac, all zones of tangible and intangible heritage value that have managed to preserve their old layout, cobblestones, and diversity. San Ángel is surrounded or crossed by large avenues where thousands of cars, trucks, and buses circulate, and where empty lots of old mansions attract greedy speculators who do not think about contributing to sustainability but rather about squeezing the maximum out of the land. Until now, the current regulations of the partial programs and neighborhood defense have temporarily halted illegal constructions, such as the semi-built building in Altavista and Insurgentes. But, if the PGD is approved without explicit reference to the partial programs, specifying that they CANNOT be modified, even if there are “sufficient” services and infrastructure, and if these regulations are not respected, soon buildings with hundreds of apartments, hotels, and shopping centers will emerge, making it impossible to travel through Altavista, Insurgentes, Revolución, Desierto de los Leones, and the Periférico, and strangling San Ángel.
San Ángel is just one example. The same could happen in the center of Tacubaya or Chimalistac. In addition to this “development” being unsustainable, it is paradoxical that the self-proclaimed “People’s government” thus promotes “luxury” developments, aimed at those who can pay millions of dollars (some already advertised online, as if this Law were already approved). It is also striking that in the “consultation to include a gender perspective in the PGD,” the authorities claimed they want to guarantee a city where women feel “happy” and safe, as if contributing to soaring rents and property taxes, the expulsion from neighborhoods, increased traffic and travel time, water scarcity… would favor well-being. Not even the mockery is spared.
The Future of CDMX: A Critical Juncture
The PGD institutionalizes real estate speculation and accelerates the destruction of CDMX. There are only a few weeks left to stop it. This contentious plan raises fundamental questions about urban planning, social equity, and governance in Mexico City. The conflict between economic development and the preservation of cultural heritage and quality of life for residents is starkly evident. The critical period ahead will determine whether the city succumbs to unchecked development or if its citizens and advocates can successfully push for a more balanced and sustainable approach.
