A view to the main cathedral in the historic center. Guadalajara, the center of Mexico's second largest metropolitan area, is a city I've come to know over several decades. My grandparents used to spend their winters here (in the 1980s), and my parents have made the nearby village of Ajijic their retirement home for the last 10 years. There are thousands of expatriates from all over the world in this area and the attraction is easy to see. It has one of the best climates anywhere on the planet and is wrapped in the beauty of the mountainous mesa central, Mexico's altiplano region.
Many unsightly parking garages spoil the atmosphere of the city center. The physical charms of the city of Guadalajara, however, are harder to appreciate. Despite a historic center studded with hundreds of impressive buildings, the quality of the urban experience is greatly compromised by jarring architectural blight, streetscapes overwhelmed by traffic in cars and smoke-belching, ramshackle buses, and a serious shortage of trees. Considering Mexico's relatively high economic standing, lack of resources cannot be a fair excuse for this state of affairs. Mexico has an income per head well above the Latin American average and one significantly higher than that in Belgrade or Bogota, cities I've written about favorably here. It's obvious that something has seriously gone wrong with city governance and planning. Tapatios, as the people of Guadalajara call themselves, are proud of their city and may be surprised to read what I write here. But compared to so many other cities at this economic level, Guadalajara has a lot of work to do to catch up.
The beautiful Biblioteca Iberoamericana on a square. Let me put my disappointment into context. Whenever I go into the center of Guadalajara I feel a sense of promise. The ingredients required for a stunningly beautiful urban scene are all here. I'm not exaggerating. As I mentioned earlier, there is a wealth of impressive architecture, from colonial to neoclassical, with many beautiful plazas and parks. There is also a lively pulse due to a youthful population Yet, the beautiful assets are disconnected and mixed in with unsightly buildings, low-end retail and gaudy fast food establishments. The areas of beauty are strung together by charmless and unwelcoming streets. This is a city that seems to willfully ignore its own potential (and problems), leaving its incredible assets wasted. It's why Guadalajara itself never features as a top tourist destination in Mexico. In discussions with people here I sense complacency. There is limited recognition that the city lags so severely in quality of life. And without this recognition there is, I imagine, limited public demand for the changes necessary to tie all the wonderful things this city has to offer into a compelling whole.
Street in city center with rare example of electric bus (sadly in a decrepit state). The quality of life deficit derives from many things, including a society plagued by high levels of inequality and undeniably poor planning and city governance. The inequalities have produced social problems that have driven the middle and upper classes out of the center of the city into quiet and safe suburban enclaves. City and regional leaders did seemingly little to stem this flow and encouraged unending sprawl by building wide roads, almost like highways, radiating out from the center. Instead of bolstering the historic center by maintaining high quality infrastructure and creating incentives for the middle and upper classes to stay, the center was allowed to deteriorate and become, in many areas, a haven for beggars and criminals. It was no longer a meeting place for all segments of society, but primarily a commercial center for the lower classes.
Juarez station on the two-line and sadly rather short Guadalajara metro. So instead of investing in the center and establishing policies that would encourage density and vertical growth, the Guadalajara region has opted, if by plan or negligence, to expand horizontally. In structure, it has more in common with large cities in the United States than with those in Europe or South America. Yet, unlike the United States, Mexico is not a wealthy country where automobile ownership is the norm. Despite having nearly 5 million people in the metro area, most of whom are dependent on public transport, the region does not have a well developed, integrated public transport system. For those in poverty, this disorganization means grueling, multi-segment and expensive commutes.
New brick sidewalks with tree plantings in the city center. It wouldn't be fair not to point out the recent efforts that are being made to improve the center of Guadalajara, although in my opinion they are piecemeal. In many areas of the center new, wider stone sidewalks have been laid, often with tree plantings. There are now pole-mounted garbage cans on many streets, and plans are afoot to extend the metro and add more rapid-transit bus lines. Some serious urban renewal is taking place, especially in the Chapultepec area, where new high-rise apartment buildings are under construction and the young and trendy congregate. However, it is still in the outlying suburbs where the major development takes place. Puerta Hierro, an exclusive commercial and residential high-rise development, is a case in point. It is far from the city center and difficult to access without a car.
Pedestrianized shopping street in the city center. What I have't been able to find is a clear vision and master plan for the urban renewal of central Guadalajara - a renewal that includes the return of the middle and upper classes (and tourists) to the city center. It would require getting cars off more of the streets and a great expansion of pedestrian areas, replacing polluting, derelict buses with modern, quiet and clean alternatives, the widespread construction of quality multi-story housing, and incentives to get desirable businesses back into the center. There are many excellent models available. Santiago, Chile provides one example of how a thriving Latin American city center, inclusive of all socioeconomic groups, can look. See my posting on Santiago here. With the right policies and investment, Guadalajara has what it takes to become an elegant, walkable city with a thriving, inclusive city culture. It can also become a top destination for tourists to Mexico.
PLEASE SEE MY NEW BLOG POSTING IN 2017 ON POSITIVE CHANGES IN GUADALAJARA: http://www.citinature.org/city-livability-blog/category/guadalajara
PLEASE SEE MY NEW BLOG POSTING IN 2017 ON POSITIVE CHANGES IN GUADALAJARA: http://www.citinature.org/city-livability-blog/category/guadalajara
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