Paloma Negra, Benito Juarez, Chimulhuacan, EdoMex (Street View)

“The city is the most environmentally benign form of human settlement. Each city dweller consumes less land, less energy, less water, and produces less pollution than his counterpart in settlements of lower densities.”

-Peter Cathorpe, quoted in Prospect Magazine

In one of my past lives I was hawking supposedly environmentally friendly office-building style condos near the coast of Nayarit. Even then I thought to myself, “That thing is about as green as a Hummer with a dandelion decal on the bumper.” They sold, though I’m not sure any of them ever got built.

Not surprisingly in that line of work, there was infrequent reference to “the slums of Mexico City.” Foreign buyers are always re-assured that most of Mexico is safe, you just have to avoid the drug war and the “Slums of Mexico City.” Having lived in Mexico City now 5 years, I can assure you that “slums” are few and far between.  The article I’m looking at today defines slums thusly: “the conurbations made up of people who do not legally occupy the land they live on.”

In Mexico City, that would be a big part of Chalco, where the worst part of the flooding took place over the past several weeks. Then there are remaining strips of the poorest places in the city. These have been, over the last several decades, largely built up to the point where they are but underdeveloped, usually narrow zones, subsumed as it were into the larger urban mass. Rafael made reference the other day to pigs and chickens on the roof in Neza, but I think his whole point was that today’s Neza is not like it used to be.

Chalco is far to the south east of the city. But within the city, you can encounter the poorest of the poor neighborhoods in a very few places in Iztapalapa, Atlampa in Delegación Cuauhtemóc and a few other places. If anything they seem now like just busted streets where the houses are thrown together mostly out of refuse. They don’t go on for acre after acre. But this line from the Prospect Article really caught my eye.

Alleyways in squatter cities, for example, are a dense interplay of retail and services—one-chair barbershops and three-seat bars interspersed with the clothes racks and fruit tables.

That sounds more and more like all the places in Mexico City that I am most fond of. And here it turns out, is another reason my fondness is justified. Also from Propsect:

• Squatter cities are also unexpectedly green. They have maximum density—1m people per square mile in some areas of Mumbai—and have minimum energy and material use. People get around by foot, bicycle, rickshaw, or the universal shared taxi.

• Urban density allows half of humanity to live on 2.8 per cent of the land.

• “Cities are so much more successful in promoting new forms of income generation, and it is so much cheaper to provide services in urban areas, that some experts have actually suggested that the only realistic poverty reduction strategy is to get as many people as possible to move to the city.”- The Challenge of Slums, a 2003 UN-Habitat report quoted in the Prospect Article

• Consider just the infrastructure efficiencies. According to a 2004 UN report: “The concentration of population and enterprises in urban areas greatly reduces the unit cost of piped water, sewers, drains, roads, electricity, garbage collection, transport, health care, and schools.” In the developed world, cities are green because they cut energy use; in the developing world, their greenness lies in how they take the pressure off rural waste.

So, folks can have those office-building-looking condos on the coast. They can’t match the sustainability of living closer to other people. Score one more for the densely populated city.

A few more sales like this and his IPO really takes off. Photo from Philly.com / South Jersey News

This is another in my Mexico is the Future of the US Posts – which actually go back almost the life of this blog.

Reading the financial press in the US, one would think that there is still some hope for Main Street – as opposed of course to Wall Street. But let’s face it. That’s really not going to happen with this administration. A guy who can’t see the wisdom of prosecuting torturers and initiators of illegal, merciless and murderous wars – and of actually building political capital the right way – is not going to see the wisdom of changing the way business is done either. And the woes of “Main Street” are not exactly new.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on one of America’s few struggling, but surviving Main Streets – the one in Camden, New Jersey. In many ways, its typical.

When exactly did Federal Street in Camden New Jersey go under? In the 1960′s Camden lost 12.2% of it’s population, in the 1970′s another 17.2% dropped away. And when last I visited, the place was as desolate a far eastern outpost of the Rust Belt as anyone could imagine.Camden has been abandoned by any meaningful policy direction for nearly 50 years now.

Sun Belt cities – now losing population too – are all designed without Main Streets – so no worries there.

But the idea that suddenly Main Street has problems and that they are ever, ever, ever going to recover from the Mexican/Republican style government that killed them is sheer fantasy. Not to say Mexicans generally compare to Republicans, but Mexican Corruption and Republican Government dependence and manipulation certainly does compare rather favorably.  Not to let Obama off the hook too easy though…

The comparison just keeps coming up. In the Santa Fe Reporter:

…the US has over the past several decades developed inequalities usually found only in poor countries with autocratic governments.

Thanks for looking into that, Geithner. And look at this. Economist Michael Hudson at Online Journal via Naked Capitalism:

“You have to realize that what they’re trying to do is to roll back the Enlightenment, roll back the moral philosophy and social values of classical political economy and its culmination in Progressive Era legislation, as well as the New Deal institutions. They’re not trying to make the economy more equal, and they’re not trying to share power. Their greed is (as Aristotle noted) infinite. So what you find to be a violation of traditional values is a re-assertion of pre-industrial, feudal values. The economy is being set back on the road to debt peonage. The Road to Serfdom is not government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards, it’s the dismantling of government, the dissolution of regulatory agencies, to create a new feudal-type elite.

So what does that have to do with Camden, New Jersey ? Much less with Mexico ?
Well one of the ways that Mexicans survive economic downturns is simply by keeping a good part of their economy informal. Is that neo-feudal ?  Not exactly, but it is like Pre-Progressive capitalism anyway. Maybe the only thing we can do if Obama doesn’t get it – which he apparently doesn’t.

What I’m writing will horrify any middle class Mexican as much any NorteAmericano, but there is something to be said for locally owned and operated small businesses – the kind that aren’t looking to grow into capital extractive franchises, but that are looking to hold onto and maintain low profit margins and sustainable, moderate growth over the long-term.  Apparently that’s also the kind the Obama administration doesn’t care much about. See the NO NEW JOB GROWTH FOR SMALL BUSINESSES story on Bloomberg.com.

Here’s Federal Street from 2 years ago.  The sort of story that right wingers everywhere hate to read. A revitalized neighborhood with locally owned and operated independent businesses is thriving. And two years later, these little legally operated puestos and locales are still going strong.

Those shoppers have turned the compact shopping district into Camden’s only thriving commercial corridor, according to Raymond Lamboy of the Latin American Economic Development Association. And they have boosted a grassroots redevelopment effort as the city struggles to attract major employers.

Undoubtedly – the major employers will be able to hire people for free, paid for by the state of New Jersey and the feds.  Thanks a lot.

Once fat lazy corporate-welfare Americans learn something about free-enterprise, we can get on with pushing the USA into something like an economy that isn’t quite so susceptible to the kind of Wall Street dream economics of the past 30 some years – the kind that led the US into this mess in the first place. And that means going back to Mama Lucinda’s Tienda instead of Walmart, back to Pedro’s Paleta’s instead of Haagen Daz, and probably to a lot of other interesting changes. The rust belt, including Camden, still looks more like Mexico – at least economically – than does any part of California or Texas – let’s watch if the trend isn’t everywhere soon.

Click the image for everything I thought about Tlalpan in the past week. Is it in the top 5? You tell me. That house evokes everything I love about Mexico - and I bet something more to the people who call it home.

This is supposed to be our End-of-the-year! End-of-the-DECADE  blow-out post.

~sigh~

Luckily – we can keep up with some of the things written in the past month, anyway. With that in mind, these are the things that I really did enjoy reading – you can follow my Stumbles from this link, though honestly, some of it gets twittered also.

Chef Anna Garcia in Tepoztlan wrote a special post on Mexico Christmas Tree Cutting loaded with heart warming holiday photos.  As much as I hate Christmas – this post did bring back memories of cutting down the old tree, something I did every year until I was about 12 years old.

We selected our tree and wrapped it in twine. Fidelina told us that it takes about 5-8 years for the tree to be Christmas tree size from a sapling. However, the stump will usually grow two “new” trees which cuts the growth time by 2-3 years.

Sometimes I am baffled by why some things I Stumble get traffic and other things just don’t.

Maybe pulling these things out of the wall is just passé in Mexico today.

You would think 37 dead bodies found in a church basement would be interesting. 37 mummified corpses, a rare bible and the skeleton of a Spanish colonial official who’s been there for a few hundred years.

The mummies were found in the Church of Santo Domingo, along with a small stairway leading to a grotto in which the skeleton of a Spanish colonial official was resting, the Zacatecas state government said.

The rest of the Zacatecas Mummy story is here.

I’m still chewing on From Xico’s massive and hard-hitting Why is Mexico such a Mess? Neoliberal Economics and NAFTA. This one goes a long way toward explaining why I don’t support the pro-blow-shit-up-and-kill-everyone American Media which seem profoundly incapable of this kind of analysis, much less actually reaching conclusions.

• What to insist on in future agreements:
• • Benchmark standards for labor and the environment.
  • Provisions which include funding for development to bring Mexico to a position where it could realistically compete with the US and Canada.

If I am going to waste time worrying about US Politics I might as well just accept the mal-intent of the opposition at all times – part of the reason I moved Talking Points Memo down and Naked Capitalism up in my reader. I will move From Xico up too.

Speaking of Massive, the Greanvile Post is showing up as the alternative to the now capitulating, standard, corporate-lapping Huffington Post. I am not sure what to make of this Gaither Stewart story “In Search of Mexico” but for sheer bulk, it beats Huffington. Buried in all that type are some truly worthy passages:

Since we both felt immediately at home, Milena and I quickly concluded that the Mexican is nonetheless more European. On the other hand, the Mexican nature also makes one wonder if it is positive to be so universal that you can accept anything philosophically? For universality has not brought great fortune to Mexico, no more than has its proximity to the USA. It seems only ancient peoples like perhaps Sicilians or Sardinians are capable of being simply men. Men who don’t strive for perfection. It came to seem to me that men who just lead good lives are perhaps universal without realizing it. It makes them free, but at the same time vulnerable to the claws of the hawks.

I guess I would have hacked this thing into 2 or 3 entries but it is worth the wading.

Therefore there is little serenity in San Miguel de Allende. Its peoples are never content. Neither rich Gringos who find no fulfillment once their new houses in the hills or in the historic center are finished, nor retirees who want the houses of the rich, nor middle class Mexicans who, in their love-hate relationship with the Gringos, imitate their tormentors.

The only apparently normal ones are the poor Mexicans who serve the rich. Not only do the poor Mexicans live their lives against the background of the rich, amused and influenced by their follies, but each class depends on the other: Gringos and rich Mexicans simultaneously depend on the cheap labor and are the source of the livelihood of the poor. Though these peoples share the same sun and thin air and the winds and the rains and the pollution and the dust and the noise, in reality they are as different from one another as are the planets glittering above them.

Greanville’s got technical issues, but more power to them and to Stewart in San Miguel. I hope this thing comes out in print, cause I will be happy to give it the attention it deserves – on paper.

Alejandro Cartagena Photography, click the image to see more.

Lastly – just go see these Alejandro Cartagena photos on the photographer’s website. I waste enough of my own time not really doing photography. It’s a good change to see someone who really knows what they are doing.

Though the project is based in the US/México border, I felt the urge to deconstruct the image of the somewhat stereotyped violent view of the border by investigating and representing the lifestyles of the people who decide to stay in between.

An excellent Christmas gift will touch Mexico City this coming year thanks to an initiative by the city’s  government: the construction of the Biometrópolis Campus, intended to be the “Capital of  Knowledge of Latin America.” It is an impressive complex to the south of the city that will provide room for investigators, scientists and (we hope) headquarters of architecture companies that will leave agape both chilangos – and the rest of the world.

Plans are to combine the government, UNAM (the autonomous national university) and private business interests, on a Biometrópolis Campus that will set an example for the entire region. Already norms for viable buildings are being considered and the plans for urbanization are being put together by the arch-famous Foster office and Partners. The plan has been formulated so that 50% of the 75 hectares of the estate are green areas. And rumor has it that the plan calls for the regeneration of the Magdalena River, also in the area.

Like any high-impact project, the Biometrópolis also will require improvements to the surrounding roads and street: an extension of the Periferico in the sections bordering the land parcel, as well as a connection with University City (CU) through Puma Bus. It sounds almost idyllic, especially because the government of the Federal District has already placed videos, detailed descriptions and some images on the official website of the project.

Just as with every announcement that sounds too good to be true, it will be necessary to stay informed on the progress of the Biometrópolis. But the fact that Mexico City is taking the trouble to try to be to the vanguard in science, technology and education already is something that deserves some celebration.

Translated from Issac Vazquez‘s original at eldefe.com.

"An icon of French industrial chic, trisected lengthwise and reassembled with the middle third left out (arty design reduced to art, purely)"

Peter Schjeldahl’s review of the Orozco exhibit at New York’s MOMA is here.

Some highlights of this refreshingly positive review are as follows:

A cardinal point is Orozco’s way of relating to post-minimalism, notably the achievements of Bruce Nauman and Eva Hesse, as a cogent, fertile tradition, rather than—as it has often seemed for the past forty years—a terminal breakdown of art’s formal integrity, relevance to life as it is lived, and civilized appeal.

Much of the show, organized by the museum’s chief curator of painting and sculpture, Ann Temkin, amounts to a walk-in album of Orozco’s greatest hits: a big ball of plasticine that he rolled through the streets of New York

Works mentioned in the article (photos are linked to the original sources):

Yielding Stone (Piedra Que Cede), 1992. Plasticine and dust.

a double-sized chessboard occupied only by knights (“Horses Running Endlessly”)

a human skull checkered with graphite (“Black Kites”)

Life is not a video game. (Click for the larger than life version)

Luckily the building at left on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma is almost completely obscured by trees. It’s easy to miss and jaw-droppingly enticing.

You can be (well – if you’re from here) part of the giant video game that is Mexico law enforcement – and maybe the grossest recruitment strategy ever imported across international borders.

If you want a good take on all the changes taking place in Mexico law enforcement, there’s a solid LA Times story (from November 17) here on new efforts to recruit, train and “professionalize” Mexico City’s Finest.

At the heart of the overhaul is a “new police model” that stresses technical sophistication and trustworthiness and that treats police work as a professional career, not a fallback job.

The article doesn’t mention any other full building-wraps, though presumably they’ll be recruiting in Michoacan, Veracruz and points north, where the need seems to be greatest.

The confusion between DF and SMA may be the only thing wrong in an otherwise outstanding report.

Here’s a news item that you might have missed – even if you have been paying attention to the “immigration wars” on cable news in the US. See the video below.

It turns out now that the Mexican Government is offering amnesty to all immigrants in Mexico whether they are legal or illegal.

The story cites the US Embassy still repeating the 1 million number – it’s a number that never seemed right to me. Though here Marvin West at Mexconnect has a theory on where it came from, and John Mason Hart traces the phenomena of Americans in Mexico all the way back to the Civil War.

But beyond that – I’d rather hear news like this from Al Jazeera than from plenty of other sources I can think of.  Let me know what you think.

New US Ambasaador Carlos Pascual

The newly appointed ambassador of the United States to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, addressed a group of American Chamber/Mexico members in one of his first public speeches in mid-October. We’ve had a little bit of a time getting this story online – but for what it’s worth…

Cuban born, the ambassador addressed the crowd in Spanish. Though the link above is to the Chamber’s own take on the event – most of the Mexican media tended to go in for the Ambassador’s rather tired call for an end to violence along the border as their angle on the story.

That’s as if nothing else happened and some figures on investment loss and damage to the business environmnet is somehow news. Interestingly though – the ambassador also gave a brief overview of the U.S. and  Mexican economies – highlighting expenditures in health and education. It appears both countries spend more in those areas without achieving the desired results.

He did give some hard hitting facts – citing the OCDE among others – as his source, though notably many of his numbers were a bit outdated at least according to our own friends at eldefe.com.

• In the US the average business call costs 51 cents while inMexico the cost is US$1.77 and for residential calls it is worse 47 cents in the US and a whopping US$2.57 in Mexico.

• Internet prices are only six dollars higher in Mexico, but that’s still pathetic for a country that is a late starter and should be offering competitive rates.

• Electricity prices or not that different, .1117 in Mexico and .0628 in the States for commercial use.  Residential use 1076 and 1027 respectively.

• The HUGE difference is in natural gas for home use it cost for 10/7kcalVCB 717.70 in Mexico and only 486.67 in the U.S.go

These figures were a jumping off point to say that what is needed quickly is more compatibility in the regulations of the two countries. A best practice document on regulations was completed in 2008 – but really – not much has happened.  A standards committee also exists, but foot-dragging continues and of course the ever ubiquitous call for transparency. Areas where he suggested bilateral cooperation needs to be stepped up are digital television, car emissions, bio technology and agriculture.

Some questions tell you more about the interviewer than the respondent

There I said it.

Go and read the whole Pew Attitudes Survey. Download the whole PDF and read it straight through.

Maybe it should be called “The Global Project – WITH ATTITUDE.”

Maybe the entire thing is not totally inaccurate – but their made-for-Fox-News Headline sort of skews the pollsters a little in a certain direction.

But let me take it a bit further. Suppose Panama sent a bunch of pollsters over to Costa Rica and found out that only 80% of Costa Ricans would NOT be really happy to move to Panama.

And then the Panamanians started jumping up and down and saying – look look -

20% of Costa Ricans would prefer to live in Panama.

What exactly is the point?

• Is the point that Panamanians need external assistance to actually believe that other people want to come and live in their country?
• Do Panamanians respond really well to feeling superior to their neighbors?
• Is the point that Costa Rica is inherently inferior – somehow in spite of everything – culture and family ties and history?
• Is the point that economics are stronger? Maybe 20% of Costan Ricans can just get better jobs – easily – in Panama.
• Maybe the point is that, because a lot of the country is just plain ugly and backward, a lot of pressure and public relations have to be done to keep the Panamanians docile, fat and quiet?
• Why don’t the Russians ask the Kazakhs what they think of Russia?
• Has anyone heard what happened when the Peruvians asked the Argentinians what they think of Peru?
• Maybe Canada should go and survey Iceland?

Here’s more from the Pew Survey report:

Life Satisfaction

Nearly nine-in-ten Mexicans (87%) say they are satisfied with their life overall, while 14% say they are dissatisfied. Mexicans are about as satisfied with their lives as are publics in the two other Latin American countries surveyed; 87% of Brazilians  and 85% of Argentines are satisfied. Similarly, nine-in-ten Americans are content with their lives.

Uh huh. That’s very sweet. It’s at a point like that last line where you really start to wonder… did they ask in Ohio ? in Florida? is that sort of sampling – 1000 people – reflective in any meaningful way of your experience of the USA ?

One can argue all day about the Truthiness of the Survey. Maybe 9 out of 10 Americans are “content with their lives” when some Pew Porker pokes a microphone in their face – but maybe such an experience would also be a little like attending the sporting event pictured below.

9 out of 10 North Koreans showing contentment.

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The Country Boys Truck, selling traditional Puebla fare, wins best street food in New York City

No stranger to New York City street food, I thought this truck was up on West 79th Street.

No matter though, if you’re out in the neighborhood of the Red Hook Ball Fields, you can enjoy the best food in the streets of New York City.

This year’s Vendy Award went to Fernando and Yolanda Martinez who took first place this past  Saturday in a ceremony at the Queens Museum of Art.

Selling for about 6 dollars a lunch, according to the video below you can get huaraches, quesadillas, sopes, and certainly – some tacos. Nice to see good food returning to the US.

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