“pam, pam, pam” the hammer has been heard in the large Granada district from two decades ago.
Dry and metallic hits, grating use of drills and thunderous movement of heavy machinery has become the background sound in the lives of thousands of people.
Not only those who live in this area of the West of the city of Mexico, but the thousands of office workers and tourists are exposed to uninterrupted construction of buildings of the past 20 years.
“We got already used”, said José Reyes, who like dozens of families has lived since the mid of the last century in this chaotic neighbourhood with a resigned laugh.
“We were always the only ones. When I came here, all the houses were sheets of cardboard. All this were factories,”says Reyes to the BBC, pointing to the large buildings that surround his home.
He and 200 others live in the closed Andrómaco, a narrow pedestrian alley of some 60 houses that contrasts dramatically with the landscape of her around.
GoogleLa closed Andromaco (box) is the only street of original homes in the area. Just two blocks away is the Carso Plaza, a luxury real estate set office buildings and residences, a couple of museums, a theatre and even an underground Aquarium built by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
The monumental work – crowned by the literally dazzling Museo Soumaya Slim dedicated to his deceased spouse – had an initial investment estimated at $800 million.
“It’s the largest of Latin America trying with mixed uses,” says with pride the grupo Carso, company that was the spearhead for other real estate to invest in this area.
BBCEsta area was radically transformed from real estate momentum of the consortium of Slim. The works began in 2008, but already since 2000 this sector of industrial buildings in abandonment began to transform itself into what it is today.
And since then residents of low- and middle-income families have seen how transforms the urban landscape that they knew in what has colloquially been called “Slim city”.
They lost the Sun
The inhabitants of the capital of Mexico have Polanco as a synonym for high class neighborhood.
There settled Huge mansions of high income families, Mexican and foreign, which there are embassies, large residential buildings and warehouses.
The area known as new Polanco, at one end of the neighborhood, was the last to develop once large companies such as General Motors, Chrysler, and General Tire shut down their factories.
BBC closed Andromaco Alley is located right next to some 20-story buildings. It was then that the residents of the popular colonies irrigation, Granada and Granada enlargement began to see huge gaps that were opened for the foundations of buildings (which has not stopped in two decades).
“The lifting of torres has not produced us so much problems, be honest. The problem comes later, when they begin to inhabit”, explains José Reyes, leader of the neighbours of closed Andromaco.
Its alley bordered directly with two residential towers, one of which is being built by the company Metro Buildings, and walking distance to soar more buildings of between 10 and 20 floors.
Kings and their neighbors have lost Sun mornings and afternoons, because locked behind large walls of concrete and glass the night comes early for them.
Construction worker BBCTanto as office workers consumed products sold in Andromaco.pero more serious still, the opening of hundreds of residential apartments, offices and entertainment centers has caused a large overload public services as Basic as water or drainage.
“Model of development”
It’s Friday (and payday) and in the vicinity of the Plaza Carso feels competition of noise between the bustle of people and cars looking for their way to honking.
Hundreds of employees entering and leaving the towers of offices of almost 60 national enterprises and transnational corporations such as Nokia, Huawei, Philip Morris, Metlife and the jewel in the Crown of the Empire Slim, America Movil (one of the 10 largest enterprises of Latin America).
But there are also large rows of Mexicans and foreigners arriving in the Soumaya Museum, aquarium or theatre that is in place.
“It is very impressive. Very nice and elegant”, says the Canadian Annika Boron after visiting the Soumaya Museum in which Slim exposed part of the works of art from his personal collection.
BBCLos museums and entertainment centers have become a tourist attraction in the area. Carso ensures that your real estate “trying” is a “model of sustainable development” which changed the forgotten landscape again Polanco.
A train via Active margins were converted into a pedestrian walkway, one of the most visible neighborhood improvements.
“The combination of cosmopolitan life, cultural spaces and easy road access to the area again Polanco impacts positively and significantly on the quality of life of the settlers,” said the Consortium.
Development for who?
Social anthropologist Adriana Aguayo, Metropolitan Autonomous University, recently conducted a study on the housing boom in the area and its urban effects.
BBCConstructoras as Carso and Mega Buildings ensures that they have contributed to improving the environment of the area. He found that since the past decade were 176 projects of construction of whom 15,700 housing spaces are being created.
Five years ago, the floating population – people who daily pass the day in the area by employment or other activities – already is had in more than 40,000 people, a number that could double with the conclusion of new towers.
“It is true that the urban landscape has changed. The problem is who changes”, says BBC World Aguayo.
“Became a development with a not very well thought out planning. Among the first problems that we begin to see were the traffic, which now is brutal, and the water supply. And few green areas”, says.
BBCVecinos as Óscar Martínez ask for support from the authorities that controlled the real estate growth. Óscar Martínez, neighbor of the place, says that “it has been a brutal change” for the original inhabitants of the area: “this closed is all that remains as in the cartoons. In the midst of many complex (real estate) “.”
But a general problem is mobility: the narrow streets remain the same for decades for thousands and thousands of new residents and office workers.
“It is incomprehensible. Lake Zurich was the only street that was widened. And until this was not a renovation, the people who lived in that Apple could do half an hour to exit to the main avenues, one or two blocks,”Aguayo found in his research.
“BBCLos Governments of the city of Mexico authorized the construction of buildings in a small area with narrow streets.” Brutal contrast”
The inhabitants of closed Andromaco don’t know their neighbors in the luxurious apartments and vice versa.
Their interaction is limited to everyday problems, like which has loud music and poor eyesight that generate “blankets” set on the roofs of the side of the alley, or towers residents take out their dogs to defecate on the street.
BBCDesde great Tower (in the background) have come to complain about the song of a rooster at Andromaco, according to residents of the Cerrada.Gabriela Lopez Olvera, the adjoining Grand Tower condo, says that they trying to “bring the party in peace” between neighbors, as “respecting each who your” “place no problems”. Other residents approached by BBC World preferred to not comment.
The rift between neighbors is notorious and is most evident when it comes to reaching agreements as colonia (neighborhood).
“They want to make decisions without taking us into account. I to Slim or know him. I see no wrong, he invests his money to win. Also the other builders. “The problem is not the developers: the new neighbors that come and feel owners of this”, said José Reyes.
Getty ImagesEl Slim Consortium invested $800 million in the development of new Polanco.Para Dr. Aguayo, what happens there is a very pronounced example of the concept “gentrification”, when popular venues are refurbished by developers and their original inhabitants are edging to leave.
“The contrast is brutal and they obviously feel very discriminated,” explains the researcher.
“There is a very important process of social inequality. These areas have not been remodeled. They have not been displaced because the developers have focused on the grounds of the factories, but the pressure is very strong. “Not only in financial terms, but socio-cultural”, adds.
Who is responsible for?
The Secretariat of urban development and housing (Seduvi) is the body responsible for monitoring that orderly and planned in city of Mexico construction is.
The incumbent Ileana Villalobos says that they are getting to review all projects approved under past Governments once criticized the granting of real estate permits irregular over the past decade.
“We are taking very seriously the review records of constructions carried out under this model called performance systems for cooperation (SAC) in this area”, explained to the BBC.
BBCLuego require mitigation works from 2015, this year just began the change in drainage in closed Andromaco.y is that the SAC is committed to real estate to allocate resources for “mitigation” of damage to the environment and urban infrastructure.
Underground Buildings built next to Andromaco your real estate project “7 platform”, the highest Tower in the area. A representative of the firm told BBC news that they have complied with the law, including improvements in the closed.
But neighbors of the dead allege that mitigation, that obtuviero worksn after three years of complaints, are detained for lack of resources contributed by real estate to the SAC.
BBCSeduvi said with the SAC preferences that “social integration” has of indigenous residents with the new. Consultation of BBC World, Seduvi promises that in April it will deliver a detailed report of the situation of real estate in the area, as well as meetings with all the neighbors “to meet their needs”.
But Andromaco residents do not want to further delays. And they say that they would defend their properties before the pressures of the environment so that they will.
“Despite everything, the neighbors have held not to sell, not to leave, not to give them the opportunity to stay with everything that belongs to us”, says Óscar Martínez.
Now you can receive notifications of BBC world. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
Thanks for reading! Help us to continue with our work. How? You can now subscribe to political Animal on Facebook. With your monthly donation, you will receive special content. Find out how to subscribe here. Check our list of frequently asked questions here.
