Ciudad Verde

Mayors around the world, including San Francisco’s Gavin Newsom, have traveled to a certain city to learn about sustainable development and urban planning.  This city has rooftop gardens, is creating more greenbelts and bike paths, and has a “today don’t drive plan” in an effort to reduce traffic and air pollution.  I can understand if you’re assuming this is Portland, Stockholm, Vancouver, or Paris.  The answer, however, is what some surveys estimate to be the world’s largest metropolis:  Mexico City.

  Two years ago I went to Mexico City for a Latin American Business conference.  I had no idea what to expect; I had visions of traffic, dirty air, and squalid neighborhoods.  That’s true for any huge city to an extent, but overall, I could not be more wrong about this city of over 20 million.  Mexico’s Federal District has veins of green running throughout its capital:  an extensive subway that’s cheap and reliable; huge parks with gigantic trees; and plenty of fresh food that kept me from even thinking about entering a fast food joint.  Let me add that this is a fantastic city to explore:  bustling restaurants, stunning museums, a vivid nightlife, and vivacious people who are glad that you have visited.

Mexico City’s Plan Verde revolves around seven themes:  land conservation, public space, water, transportation, waste, air quality, and energy.  City leaders were aware that Mexico City had not always been equated with sustainability, so with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard as its spokesperson, the city launched this 15 year plan modeled after a similar policy agenda in Bogotá, Colombia.

One of the city’s initiatives is to get more residents out of their car and onto bikes.  Free bicycles were given to residents who passed a safety course, and bike sharing programs are also gaining traction.  The city is also building more bicycle ramps and paths, with the goal of increasing its citizens’ daily trips to 5% in 2012.  Bicyclists in havens such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen may scoff, but 5% of 20 million is an impressive task.

Green roofs are also on Mayor Ebrard’s agenda.  Starting with government buildings, rooftop gardens will help combat the city’s persistent smog problem, while reducing energy consumption and prevent flash flooding by absorbing rainfall.  The difficulty here is financing, as green roofs are costly—will the city be able to reach its goal of 50,000 square meters of rooftop gardens?

Other goals face everyday challenges, such as the issue of trash.  Like many municipalities around the world, Mexico City banned plastic bags beginning last month.  The law will not be in effect for a year, however, giving stores time to find a suitable alternative.  As one legislator noted, this is an example of society having to make a lifestyle change rather than focusing on passing new laws:  you can ban plastic bags . . . but what about those clear plastic bags in the produce sections?  We’ll have to check in next August and see whether this bans will have worked, or if plastic bags are still floating around the streets.

We always hear about 5, 10, and 15 year plans, and it’s easy to be cynical; we wonder whether the results will even come close to the goals.  I’m sure there are activists and leaders in Mexico City who believe that economic development and poverty programs should have a higher priority.  Nevertheless, cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, and even New York focused too much on “progress” and not on quality of life.  It’s encouraging to see more city leaders focus on how they can make their citizens more comfortable and their future cleaner; the costs of traffic, pollution, and overdevelopment on citizens rich and poor cannot be quantified, but they can be curbed.