Can you guys guess the Latin American country (or the city) by looking at an informal settlement.
Four Latin American cities, same density: 15,000 inhab/km2. Guess the cities.
Mexican planners will advocate for the decommodification of housing and land value capture in the same lecture.
You guys sucked: Lima, Monterrey, Quito, Montevideo.
Adrián@elenoam.bsky.social · 4d agoCan you guys guess the Latin American city by looking at the densest square kilometer?
Can you guys guess the Latin American city by looking at the densest square kilometer?
One would think this municipality was lobbied by the US Building Council to require a LEED certification for anything above 7 stories. In reality, it's just one more case of a Mexican public official being afraid of infill development and anything above two stories.
Had a conversation about parking reform in Mexican cities. A left-wing academic opposed it as related it to deregulation, fearing big retail wouldn't provide parking A right-wing official complained small retail created chaos because they lacked parking, but accepted big retail would provide it.
Google Street Viewing Mexico's dilapidated housing developments is more fun than visiting them in person. Usually I go with a driver who is too afraid to stop or drive slowly.
Funny how Monterrey's densest neighborhood is a bunch of dingbats.
Some Mexican cities are going to experience a period of proper urban decline in the upcoming years. Interestingly, many of those declining cities remain important migration destinations within their own states (Tuxtla, Xalapa, Oaxaca, Durango, Villahermosa).
Has the US urban academia become in the recent mostly YIMBY? Or is the neomarxist decommodification of housing side still relevant?
Mexican planners will talk hours about the lack of investment in Mexico’s rundown historic centers; and then argue that refurbishing old houses into Airbnbs is bad.
A municipality organized a public hearing for an upzoning at noon when it’s 38º, so nobody would show up. Based 🥵
Had a meeting with a state department of planning; they want to enforce an urban feasibility approval so they can levy development in the state.
Adrián@elenoam.bsky.social · 2w agoMexican states and local governments are poor and don’t like levying taxes, so they compete for the developers’ money.
In the Mexican context, the states are the ones limiting local governments from building housing.
M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 2w agoThe most beautiful words in California housing permitting: "our hands are tied by the state."
Just heard one of Mexico's leading urban academics complaining how Condesa has lost its residential designation because of Airbnb. The anti Airbnb sentiment will always ignore that the majority of residential conversions are informal offices.
Spent my week in Oaxaca. Like every Mexican World Heritage Site, it is annoyingly car-centric.
They are gonna ride the Chapultepec Cable Car, visit the 1960s Nonoalco Tlatelolco Complex, and have tacos in a tianguis. Tbf, that’s what I usually do with my Urbanite friends visiting CDMX.
Nilo@nilo.bsky.social · 3w agoSecretly crazy sentences seen on LinkedIn @stephenjacobsmith.com
Riding the new AIFA-Buenavista line. Annoying how this country can’t comprise any timetables.
Oaxaca is the most ungovernable metro area in Mexico. A 750,000 inhab city balkanized into 24 municipalities (average: 30,000~ inhab.). Most of them under a customary non-partisan system. Also, most of the surrounding land is social property, so no property taxes nor land for formal development.
Evidently, designed by someone whose never read the urban ordinances of Barcelona. www.amb.cat/web/territor...
amb.cat
Philip Oldfield@sustainabletall.bsky.social · 4w agoDesign concept for new courtyard housing in Barcelona Architect - Alihan Dumankaya
Funny how the slums of the past are the UNESCO WHS of today. One day, Ciudad Neza will be a top tourist spot; just like the Rio favelas are becoming one.
Mike Lydon@mikelydon.bsky.social · 4w agoI was awestruck by Matera, Italy. Considered the 3rd oldest city on earth, residents lived in hand dug caves, which have been added retrofitted for centuries. Poor conditions and disease forced the removal of 15k inhabitants in the 1950s. A UNESCO designation in 1990s opened the door to restoration🤯
Made some cute diagrams to explain a municipality why their regulation sucks.
Working for the city of Saltillo, like every Mexican city, infill development is de facto banned by regulation. In this case: ridiculously high setbacks, height restrictions by street width, and dwelling densities too low for the FAR.
Mexican planners be like: we allow multifamily buildings, as long as you don't exceed this super low single-family dwelling density.
Mexico City is hardest place to build in Mexico. It is a bureaucratic nightmare where water approval alone takes 6 months for an 8 unit project. State of Mexico ranks second; less bureaucratic but state law imposes the strictest project requirements in the country.
Using Gemini to lobby a TOD norm in the Greater Guadalajara Area. They are afraid of an FAR of 10.0.
