Is Mexico City Turning Into New York City?
Is Mexico City Turning Into New York City?
May 31, 2016 @ 07:59 AM
Nathaniel Parish Flannery
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Architect Fernando Madrid looks out at Mexico City’s skyline. Photo by Nathaniel Parish Flannery. Instagram: @NathanielParish
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On the tenth floor patio of his apartment building on Avenida Chapultepec in downtown Mexico City, 35-year-old architect Fernando Madrid leans out over the railing and looks out at the newly built skyscrapers jutting up from the street a few blocks away. The mid-day traffic clogs Chapultepec Ave, one of the main roads that cuts through Mexico City’s center, and a light haze hangs over the urban periphery. Voters in the district have rejected a plan to turn the space between the lanes into a multi-use park and shopping mall, a Mexican version of New York City’s skyline. But despite the no-vote on the project opponents dubbed “Shopultepec” Madrid does think that Mexico City is becoming increasingly like New York. Looking down at the sidewalk below as pedestrians walk past a rack of public bicycles and two police officers on a motorcycle pull up at the intersection next to a late model pink and white taxicab Madrid explains, “The city has grown a lot in the last fifteen years. The Torre America Latina used to be one of the only skyscrapers here but with the economic development the city has had now there are a lot of buildings that are bigger.” Madrid says that he thinks that the new office district along Reforma Avenue in Mexico City’s center is the Mexican version of Wall Street. There has also been a lot of development a few miles up the road in the Santa Fe district. “That area is maybe the equivalent of mid-town Manhattan,” he says.
As Mexico sheds its reputation as a dirty, dangerous city it is becoming recognized as a world-class metropolis in terms of economic activity, architecture, cuisine and culture. Mexico City was ranked as the number one city to visit in 2016 by The New York Times. “The streets are safer and more livable. You have big corporations and luxury hotels. Neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa are like Soho, the West Village. In terms of diversity and culture it’s like New York, you can find people from all over the world here,” Madrid explains.
Mexico City and New York City are North America’s two biggest urban hubs. Each city holds just under nine million residents within its limits and an additional ten million residents in the periphery. But, while New York has long been known for it’s majestic views of bridges, skyscrapers and open water, El Distrito Federal, as Mexico’s capital is known, has been shrouded by a thick cloud of smog, stuck between the mountains in a valley in central Mexico. In the 1990s the metropolis earned the name MexSicko City. Over the last decade, however, as Mexico City has shifted away from dirty industry and embraced the construction of new office buildings and for companies employing engineers, accountants, and financial professionals, Mexico’s capital has seen both its air quality and reputation improve.
Julieta Osorno, a Mexico City based economist told me, “It’s become a lot more cosmopolitan. There are a ton of foreign companies and a lot of new real estate development.”
More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanielparishflannery/2016/05/31/is-mexico-city-turning-into-new-york-city/#1e479adc4bca
