2. Who is in charge of solving the
problems in Mexico City?
3. Who is in charge of solving the
problems in Mexico City?
4. Two different strategies for
improving a city
• Top Down
These strategies are large-
scale developments usually
government led.
The Government officiants
at the top of the decision
making process make the
decisions.
Often large scale expensive
schemes.
• Bottom Up
These strategies are small-
scale community led
developments.
People who are usually at
the bottom of the decision
making process are fully
involved to help change
their area in a way that
they want.
Often low cost strategies.
5. Your turn
• Read the information on the handout and establish
some of the positives and negatives of top down
and bottom up schemes in Mexico
6. 1. Bottom-up approach in Mexico
City
Neza (SE Mexico city) grew as a squatter settlement
7. • Early 1970s, residents came together to demand that
the government gave them ownership of the land and
the area is now a thriving suburb.
• They then:
-raised small amounts of money to build schools and
health centre
- improved their environment through voluntary work
• Even today there is community help with neighbours
getting together to buy water from a visiting "pipa"
truck each week
• Neza is teeming with micro entrepreneurs working
from home or sharing spaces
• As a result there is less crime here than in other parts
of Mexico City
• But it is still considered to be a dangerous part of MC
and does not get named in travel guides
8.
9. Top down in Mexico City
• The government set up a special housing agency (INFONAVIT) in the 1990’s to
lend money (mortgage) to people so that they could buy a home.
• It was government backed and so offered mortgages to middle class who may
not have got one from a bank.
• It lent 5 million mortgages!
• The government also gave subsidies to private developers to build large scale
housing developments on the edge of the city on greenfield sites.
• These developers (e.g. Homex) built tiny orange or blue houses, each identical,
in vast quantities.
• Sadly the government wanted homes so badly the infrastructure couldn't keep
up, e.g. water supply.
• The homes are much further away from where the inhabitants work, meaning a
longer commute.
• Not all the housing developers survived as lots of the new estates weren’t sold
and so they went bankrupt.
13. Your turn
• Imagine you are producing a radio script for a live
debate about who would have the biggest say in
the redevelopment of areas in Mexico City.
• Hi Welcome to the show, today we are talking about
redevelopment and I will be interviewing Juan
Paublo-Montoya first. Juan, you live in …, what do
you think about who should be in charge of the
redevelopment in Mexico City?
• Well I know that …