Fast-track Redevelopment and Slow-track Regularization: The Uneven Geographies of Spatial Regulation in Mexico City

• Author: Jill Wigle
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19898199
• Subject Matter: Articles

56

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19898199

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 235, Vol. 47 No. 6, November 2020, 56–76

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19898199

© 2020 Latin American Perspectives

Fast-track Redevelopment and Slow-track Regularization

The Uneven Geographies of Spatial Regulation

in Mexico City

by

Jill Wigle

Some of the increasingly evident contradictions between spatial planning and social

policy in Mexico City are apparent in the way land use regulation folds into and articu-

lates with exclusion and marginality. In downtown areas, regulatory approvals and vari-

ous planning measures have facilitated the escalation of land and housing prices and more

exclusionary forms of urban development. At the periphery, land use regulation now

conditions access to urban services, property titles, and even some social programs for

settlement areas designated as “informal.” Comparing the state’s role in planning at these

distinct sites uncovers a pattern of selective and uneven spatial regulation in different

socioeconomic territories of the city, characterized by “fast-track” development approvals

in downtown areas and “slow-track” regularization of settlements in peripheral areas. The

analysis suggests how this pattern of uneven spatial regulation contributes to (re)produc-

ing urban space in ways that call into question the local government’s stated support for

the “right to the city.”

Las geografías desiguales de la regulación espacial ponen de manifiesto algunas de las

contradicciones cada vez más evidentes entre la planificación espacial y la política social

en la Ciudad de México. En las áreas del centro, las aprobaciones regulatorias y varias

medidas de planificación han facilitado el aumento de los precios de la tierra y la vivienda

y formas más excluyentes de desarrollo urbano. En la periferia, la regulación del uso de la

tierra ahora condiciona el acceso a servicios urbanos, títulos de propiedad e incluso algu-

nos programas sociales para áreas de asentamiento designadas como "informales."

Comparar el papel del estado en la planificación en estos sitios distintos revela un patrón

de regulación espacial selectiva y desigual en diferentes territorios socioeconómicos de la

ciudad, caracterizados por aprobaciones “fast-track” de desarrollo en áreas del centro y

regularización “slow-track” de asentamientos en áreas periféricas. El análisis se centra en

cómo la regulación del uso de la tierra se enreda y articula con la exclusión y la mar-

ginalidad y cómo la regulación espacial desigual contribuye a (re) producir espacio urbano

de manera que cuestione el apoyo declarado del gobierno local por "el derecho a la ciudad."

Jill Wigle is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at

Carleton University, Ottawa. Recent publications include (with coauthor Priscilla Connolly) “(Re)

constructing informality and ‘doing regularization’ in the conservation zone of Mexico City,” in

Planning Theory and Practice (2017), and “De áreas verdes a zonas grises: gobernanza del espacio

y asentamientos irregulares en Xochimilco, Ciudad de México,” in Antonio Azuela (ed.), La ciudad

y sus reglas: Sobre la huella del derecho en el orden urbano (2016). She thanks four LAP reviewers for

their insightful comments and Liette Gilbert, Priscilla Connolly, and Lorena Zárate for their help-

ful input on an earlier draft of this article. Funding for this research was provided by the Social

Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant/410-2011-2427.

898199LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X19898199Latin American PerspectivesWigle / Spatial Regulation in Mexico City

research-article2020

Wigle / SPATIAL REGULATION IN MEXICO CITY 57

Keywords: Spatial regulation, Social policy, Regularization, Informality, Mexico

City

Since the restoration of local elections in 1997, the Mexico City government

has received kudos for initiating a range of new social programs. Introduced

by local governments led by the Partido de la Revolución Democrática

(Revolutionary Democratic Party—PRD), these programs have supported

community kitchens, school uniforms, a food pension for seniors, and upgrad-

ing in marginalized communities, among other initiatives.1 These programs

have been recognized for their attention to citizen participation and vulnerable

social groups, with some receiving international awards.2 The progressive bent

of these and other urban policies has featured prominently in the way each new

local administration has promoted itself: A City for All (1997–2000), the

Equitable City and the City of Hope (2000–2006), Vanguard City and City in

Movement (2006–2012), and Let’s Decide Together and Social Capital (2012–

2018). As these slogans suggest, these policies have been integral to the political

branding of the city’s PRD-led governments (1997–2018).

The city’s progressive policy bent is also visible in the Mexico City Charter

for the Right to the City, a proclamation signed by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard

Casaubón (2006–2012) in a downtown Mexico City theater in July 2010. The

charter embraces several strategic directions for enhancing urban and commu-

nity life in the city, such as the right of residents to participate in decisions

concerning the planning and production of urban space (Wigle and Zárate,

2010). The charter also affirms the “social function of the city, of land, and of

property” (Comité Promotor, 2010: 11),3 defined as

the distribution and regulation of the use of territory and the equitable usu-

fruct of the commons, services, and opportunities offered by the city, prioritiz-

ing the collectively defined public interest. Its objective consists of guaranteeing

the right of all persons to a safe place in which to live in peace and with dignity

through the generation of participative spaces and instruments to reduce and

control speculation, urban segregation, exclusion, and forced evictions and

displacements.

This concept is integral to the city’s commitment to the “right to the city,”

now incorporated into the Mexico City Constitution (CDMX 2017a). Beyond

the kudos and signed declarations, however, actual urban development pat-

terns warrant closer scrutiny given their implications for exclusion and margin-

ality. This task is taken up here by examining the impacts of the city’s uneven

geographies of spatial regulation.

In many cities, spatial planning and social programs are operationalized

through different agencies and treated as separate policy realms. Mexico City

is no exception, with its different agencies and programs for housing, social

development, and urban planning. For example, the Instituto de Vivienda

(Housing Institute—INVI) is charged with managing the city’s affordable

housing programs, including the Programa de Mejoramiento de Vivienda

(Housing Improvement Program—PMV). The PMV addresses housing prob-

lems related to overcrowding, precarious or dilapidated conditions, and