Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has given Mexico's capital ? once infamous for its pollution, lawlessness, and general chaos ? new appeal thanks to environmental and civic programs.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, right, speaks to media members inside a train during the inauguration of a new subway line in Mexico City in October. Mr. Ebrard, whose term ends in December, is popular in his city and worldwide for the changes he has brought to Mexico's capital.
Eduardo Verdugo/AP
EnlargeJose Guadalupe Gonzalez walks among giant paper-mache renderings of fantastical dragons and serpents, called alebrijes, with his wife and two teenage daughters in the middle of Mexico City?s Zocalo to celebrate Day of the Dead. Later, the family considered catching a play for free, also in the main plaza, or strolling along the nearby, new pedestrian streets of downtown Mexico.
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In the winter the Gonzalez family goes ice-skating in the same spot. And on Sundays, any time of the year, they can hop on free bicycles and ride along Reforma, the city's most icononic thoroughfare.
In many ways, Mr. Gonzalez says his native city is an unrecognizable place, having transformed under leftist administrations and particularly the city?s outgoing Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who has become an international star of sorts among the municipal set.
?Before the lower classes did not have access to these leisure activities," says Gonzalez, a retired mechanic.
Mayor Ebrard steps down on Dec. 5 with wide approval ratings over his six-year administration, which has changed Mexico City both on the surface and in ways much deeper. For starters, Mexico City simply looks different. There are all-women buses that circulate the city and newly paved bike paths traversed by men in suits commuting to work.
Perhaps the most important changes have taken place under the surface, via new laws, climate action, and violence-combating plans. Abortion was legalized in 2007, as was gay marriage in 2010, and later gay adoption. Mexico City has been at the vanguard of ecological change, and has also been transformed by the things one no longer sees: It?s now perceived as one of the safest places in Mexico.
In short, a city with one of the worst reputations among urbanites for pollution, lawlessness, and general chaos, has an entirely new appeal.
?Outsiders once viewed the city as terrorizing,? says Ivan de la Lanza, who works for the city?s bike sharing program called Ecobici. ?Now it?s a city that people want to visit, where they want to live.?
Quality of life
It is on the environmental front that Ebrard has garnered the most international plaudits, and one of the reasons he won the World Mayor?s 2010 prize for best urban leader. After taking office he outlined a 15-year ?Green Plan? to reduce the city?s overall greenhouse gas emissions. The Ecobici program now counts over 50,000 users who can forgo their cars to commute to work along 17 paved miles of bike path. The city just unveiled a new $2 billion subway line that not only cuts commutes by an hour and in some cases much more, but also aims to get hundreds of buses off the streets.
?Along with [President] Felipe Calderon, Ebrard has supported environmental causes more than any previous administrations,? says Gustavo Alanis Ortega, the director general of the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights in Mexico City.
There are of course ?incongruencies,? says Mr. Alanis Ortega.
The city closed down a giant landfill as part of its environmental plan, but that?s meant that streets have piled up with garbage ever since. Ebrard has forged ahead with new road systems, including a double-decker structure for the highway that rings the city. While it's been supported by some who believe it will relieve unbearable rush-hour traffic, it is criticized by others for the additional cars it will bring to the city center.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/bA19ZQZFX-E/The-man-who-remade-Mexico-City
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