The floor of the Valley of Mexico has long been paved over: woods cut down, lakes drained and filled. Flat land is gone: room for new housing exists only on steep mountainsides.
No orderly plan exists for developing the hillsides. No official policy permits such construction. Instead the expansion of Mexico City is in the hands of paracaidistas—parachutistshes—savvy individuals who occupy and squat on marginal land. Using bribery they acquire proper titles and the necessary permits to cut in roads and to bring in water, sewers and power. As soon as houses are compete, they sell them and descend onto the next vacant land up the hillsides.
The history of Mexico City is of uncontrolled growth. The government has repeatedly proved it cannot rein in the developers. North of the border, unckecked suburban sprawl like that along I-15 in Nevada is the result of cozy relations between presumably respectable housing corporations and the government agencies who are supposed to control them. In Mexico City, it's done by individuals on a much smaller scale. But with enough paracaidistas busily working away, the effect is the same.
When I was spending a lot of time in the south end of DF in '98 we used to hike in the National Park just off the old Cuernavaca highway.
I was amazed to see all the squatters in the Park. They would put up signs "This is the property of _____" and be living in shacks. A couple had the old pirate VW Bug Taxies parked in front.
My friends said they cleared them out now and then ... but who knows.
Posted by: sparks | 11/23/2009 at 08:57 AM