The abandonment of the historic centers and
subsequent attempts to rehabilitate them in our country - and the world - seems
like an unavoidable reality. Sprawl peripheral growth, aimed at both
residential and social developments interested in the vehicular mobility and
the establishment of large shopping centers and supermarkets, seem more
attractive for people to relive the magic of our history with the risk of
losing the identity that makes us all, whether by birth or adoption, members of
a locality. And it's not just the physical neglect and devaluation of the historical
context which involves the demolition, destruction and irreversible change of our
historical buildings, but how the attitudes we take toward the built heritage
permeate into how we want to live, discarding the values and principles that
were taught to us since childhood.
In Mexico the process of abandonment of the
historic centers and traditional neighborhoods has its peak in 1950 when the
peripheral developments enter in the popular desire, inviting the population to
settle in exclusively residential areas divided by purchasing powers. Uninhabited
Real Estate gradually lose their value by the lack of interest of the
population and low maintenance, leaving it in the hands of people located in
the last income levels - becoming the traditional slums of historic centers - ,
of unscrupulous entrepreneurs that transform the historical facades to place
large showcases with rolling grilles and of some government offices that take
over some properties through litigation of intestacies and abandonment occupations.
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| Cholula, Puebla Successful businesses and public spaces is due to mixed uses, mainly local trade, and preference for pedestrians and non-motorized transport |
With the new international trends in the design
of cities, Mexico is forced to regain interest in their historic centers in the
new century and implemented recovery programs of the traditional spaces with a
vision that is mostly skewed to tourism. The improvement has mostly been reducing
visual pollution to pipe electric and telephone wiring, replacing asphalt
pavement with cobble or stamped concrete, installing new signals and street
furniture and improving facades by painted renovation or in some cases,
generating false constructions that do not match with the proportions and
architectural history of the place, trying to generate a false Colonial Mexico
to international tourism. In fewer cases, the proposals have been accompanied
by changes to mobility and accessibility reducing the impact of private
vehicles through wider sidewalks without levels, construction of bicycle paths
and streets in preference to cyclists, lane reduction and elimination of
parking cord but without the appropriate proposals of public transport, generation
of parking lots or building multimodal transfer centers which efficiently
interact with all users, benefiting little the general structure of public
spaces.
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| Atlixco, Puebla With housing buildins in the center, public spaces are designed for locals and tourists who meet in recreational and cultural activities with street-retailers, essential to generate life in the square |
Generating commercial and tourist uses has
undoubtedly brought benefits to the local economy, whereas in traditional
neighborhoods there is an efficient and intelligent approach to benefit local
investment, yet in the majority of cases, crime and vandalism have not given space
and time where you can visit the historic centers remains low, watching the
gates of hotels and restaurants closed just after 10 pm. Those visionary who had
considered moving government offices outside the centers to provide more
surface for rehabilitation, had faced an even more difficult problem as tourism
tend to work mostly weekends but retailers also requires active uses that
enable them to earn income beyond just Saturdays and Sundays. To achieve the
comprehensive rehabilitation of historic centers and give them back the life and
security they have lost over the years, is required a broader view considering
why the historical centers were so successful in the past. The solution: to
integrate housing and neighborhood-commercial spaces.
If a city in our country has been effective in
the rehabilitation of both its historical center and its traditional
neighborhoods, certainly it has been Mexico City. From 1990, through the Authority
of the Historic Center, it was generated a Rehabilitation Plan with 4 specific
actions: strengthening of public spaces, infrastructure and equipment; greening
trees, parks and rooftops; revitalizing mobility, housing and popular trade;
and knowing through collective creativity, a technology node and a digital platform.
Till now, it has been invested with funds from different urban improvement
programs, more than 16,500 million pesos and more than 8,000 people have returned
to live in the main perimeter, in addition of neighborhood breeding programs that
transformed "slums" into condos for vulnerable population,
eradicating and preventing social exclusion through a process of land
speculation by investors and developers that rises land values which remained
in the hands of the population with higher incomes or foreign people, as
occurred in other international examples.
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| Mexico City Commercial Land use, better infrastructure for pedestrians and a suitable system that has eliminated visual pollution and the influence of private vehicles, achieve successful spaces in historic centers |
Most of the resistance for the comprehensive
rehabilitation of historic centers lies in the desire of retailers and
investors, mainly in the tourism sector, to create "beautiful
streets" for visitors rather than functional spaces for the population.
Unfortunately in our country, the collective image of the neighborhood trade is
derogatory and classist, seeing small local establishments as spots in the
image of the city that must be eradicated rather than creatively propose its
inclusion in the traditional city to which they historically belong. Along with
the many art galleries, restaurants, hotels, souvenir shops, silverware and
spaces for tourists, it is necessary to create housing and neighborhood trade
to reinstate the population and achieve the historic centers be not only
rehabilitated spaces as odes to good taste but full functional living spaces
where prevails security and coexistence.
JPV
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