Categoría: CoRe Urban Forum 2016

Future cities must be planned in alliance between government, private sector and citizens

 

• The new Mexico City International Airport is under construction, with the world’s biggest parking lot planned with capacity for 20,000 cars. However, when it is finished, planners will realize cars are not as important as once thought.
• Mexico City is overwhelmed by housing construction.

 

 

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- Academics, specialists, entrepreneurs and authorities took part in  the third roundtable of CoRe Urban Forum CDMX 2016, to discuss Zoning and the diverse city. All of the participants concurred that the cities of the future need to be planned through an alliance between government, private sector and the public.

 

Maria Buhigas, from Barcelona’s Urban-Facts, explained that cities represent a vision of a public space and stated that “we always talk about what is on the sidewalk, but not what lies underneath; we need to think beyond the project”, while highlighting Barcelona as an example of this.

 

Salomón Chertorivski, head of Mexico City’s Secretariat Economic Development, invited the audience to think of the Paseo de la Reforma “not as a longitude axis, but as a connecting avenue”. He added that we need to ask ourselves what conditions need to be in place to allow citizens to live near their workplaces. On the other hand, he highlighted that, while 9 million people live within the borders of Mexico City, 15-16 million use the city every day, leading to some obvious questions such as where people are living and working.

 

Concerning the airport, he said that 710 hectares of its planned area remained unattributed, providing an opportunity to think about “the future of the city” lies in this space. «We must plan the future” he affirmed. “The new International Airport for Mexico City is under construction, with the world’s biggest parking lot with capacity for 20,000 cars. However, by the time they finish, they will realize cars are not the most important thing, so they will need to rethink”.

 

According to Felipe de Jesus Gutiérrez, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (SEDUVI) for Mexico City, the city loses 80,000 citizens on a yearly basis, who move out to nearby areas. In other words, the city is losing its population. “We need to form an urban plan; a draft is under discussion in Mexico City’s Constituent Assembly.” However, for any such plan to work, he stressed the need for common participation from government, private sector and the public.

 

For Jose Shabot, from the Quiero Casa real estate group, “there are three relevant actors in every project: government, developers and the public”, while stating that entrepreneurs “we work under the law and help generate parks and public spaces”.

 

Shabot agreed that Mexico City is overwhelmed in terms of housing. Over the past 30 years, Mexico City has doubled its population and increased its urban land sixfold. “Let us not think only about Reforma (for housing construction), but rather about the neighborhoods of Morelos and Guerrero”. He agreed that citizen participation must be required for future projects, and that developing confidence among all actors is needed to see the required level of cooperation.

 

Regarding bank loans for those seeking to buy or lease properties, Homero Garza from SHF, said that students and undergraduates are excluded from these projects. “There are a lot of people who don’t want any more residential buildings, as there are too many people already crowded in too small a space. However, the problem is that plans for residential buildings have been poorly drawn. For example, in the Nuevo Polanco neighborhood, the model leeks one of the most important thing is to provide infrastructure before building houses”.

 

For expert Leonardo Martinez, the land use permits for parking spaces need to be reviewed, since they cause a change in the way people live. “We need to think if parking spaces are necessary and where they are best built for interconnectivity”.

 

Jose Castillo, curator of CoRe Foro Urbano served as moderator for the roundtable, which also counted on the participation of architect Rodrigo Rivero Borrell, who stressed that “cities must be kind to  their citizens’ quality of life”.

 

For Pablo Vaggione, representative of UN Habitat, “the city is a tool for economic development. Mexico has a leading urban agenda to design a compact and prosperous city”.

 

For urban design expert Ernesto Betancourt, however, “little has been spoken about who will pay for the cities we are picturing”.

 

Finally, Doug Austin, from AVRP Studios, noted that in the 1970s, schools in the American city of San Diego were built downtown using public funds to improve the quality of life of the public, and to showcase flexibility in planning.

 

Citizen participation must be seen as a toolbox to build public space: Roundtable on participation, citizenship and responsibility

 

 

• «Citizen participation is key to generating empathy. Social conversation and a level of horizontal citizenship should be encouraged «: Steven Popper.
• «The 3×3 law has brought about fundamental changes, perhaps the most important of which is that corruption is being pursued ex officio. These changes are incentives to modify the political system in such a way that corruption no longer has a place in Mexican politics»: Juan Pardinas.

 

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- Citizen participation and responsibility was the theme of the fourth and final roundtable of the CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016, presented by Steven Popper, senior economist at the RAND Corporation and the General Director of the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO), Juan Pardinas.

 

The opening speech was delivered by Gabriela Alarcón, Director of Urban Development at IMCO, who said that the extent of citizen participation should be better defined within the redesign of cities in order to understand its limits and how to best rebuild trust among the public.

 

For Popper, the fundamental question is how to support a process of citizen participation and collaboration. «A process of urban value and innovation usually follows this order: research, development, invention, adoption and dissemination. But it’s not always like this. I would say that it is particularly difficult in Mexico City, where the problem is that the participants are not connected. Entrepreneurs, academics, workers, students and others do not have a linear communication where they share concerns or risks. Trust is strictly related to risk. In Mexico City, risk is not shared horizontally. »

 

For Popper, there are three causes of mistrust that prevent the construction of citizenship in Mexico: first, the coexistence of many people with different objectives, interests and fears, which can be a breeding ground for corruption; second, not understanding that the urban planning process is more important than the final product; and third, uncertainty, which is a risk without calculation.

 

«One of the problems is the privatization of interests. The explicit declaration of an urban vision is too important to be left to the ordinary visionaries on these issues, such as architects or urban developers. Citizen participation is key to generating empathy. Social conversation and a level of horizontal citizenship should be encouraged”, he pointed out.

 

In his intervention, Juan Pardinas considered that the construction of citizenship is vital and has to be dynamic: «Citizenship must be seen as a toolbox that will serve to build up public spaces, including the votes from women and the opinions of marginal or minority communities.»

 

Pardinas also made a counterpoint to the causes of distrust raised by Popper. Before 2014, the only people in the country with the power to initiate laws were the President and members of Congress. This changed with the 2014 Reform, allowing Mexicans to participate in the construction of laws. «The 3×3 Law has brought about fundamental changes, perhaps the most important of which is that corruption is being pursued ex officio. These changes are incentives to change the political system in such a way that corruption no longer has a place in Mexican politics. »

 

For Pardinas, current technology, such as the connectivity provided by a smartphone, is a great tool for building up citizenship and trust in that process. However, they can also present threats that must be analyzed. In his opinion, citizens belong to the city, an image Pardinas encapsulated with a sentence from the Citizen Manifesto: I prefer cities to nations.

 

In her participation, Ana Ramírez Lacorte mentioned that «although there is an empowered community in Mexico City that has achieved great results such as the rededication of the Chapultepec Corridor, there are still many neighborhood organizations that require attention.»

 

These words triggered the discussion regarding one of Mexico City’s most persistent problems: inequality.

 

Alejandro Hernández proposed a dilemma: how to encourage citizen participation, especially on urban issues, when many of them survive on a salary of less than 7,000 pesos per month?

 

In this regard, María Amparo Casar added that «Mexico generally has low-intensity citizens, but we must recognize the causes of this low citizen participation. According to the surveys, very little progress has been made in terms of the rule of law since the 1950s. Surveys say that only 3 to 10 percent of Mexicans have participated in any activity of social manifestation, and most of those that have do so within a church setting. Statistics also reveal that Mexicans do not participate because of a lack of confidence and because they feel that participating, makes no difference,” she pointed out.

 

Part of the eradication of inequality, at least in terms of citizen participation, has to involve tolerance, according to Javier Esquillor, who first stated that spaces of recognition should be generated among different population groups. Tolerance in different directions is also a key factor in building citizenship inherent in building trust.

 

For Jesús «Chuy» Álvarez, from Monterrey, tolerance is built by people getting to know their neighbors and getting involved in the community. One option to help this is to break the verticality within the designs of citizen participation projects. Instead, he called for the value of time to be raised and to make neighbors feel that they are part of an important project.

“The common goal is to have a better city, more livable and friendlier” said Antonio del Valle Perochena in the closing of CoRe | Foro Urbano CDMX 2016

 

• “We have to ensure the city works in a small scale for it to work on a bigger scale”: Riccardo Marini
• “We have to think beyond the Project and understand the variables with which we have to operate in the future”: Jose Castillo
• “The challenge is to continue and systematize the efforts for those ideas to become a reality”: Juan Pardinas

 

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- “All of us, in this past days made citizenship”. With this thought, Antonio del Valle Perochena, Chairman of the Board of Grupo Empresarial Kaluz, ended CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016, at Estación Indianilla. The conclusions of the two-day event of roundtables and conferences around mobility, public space, zoning and social participation were in charge of Del Valle Perochena himself, as well as Riccardo Marini, from Gehl Architects, Juan Pardinas, chairman of IMCO, and José Castillo, curator of CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016.

 

Among the ideas that came up in this two days, Marini remembered the need to think of a city for the citizens and not for cars. “We have to ensure the city works in a small scale for it to work on a bigger scale. We have to commit with the citizens and engage everyone in the change process. Before architects, be human beings”.

 

Jose Castillo noted the final thoughts in the zoning roundtable. First, that the public space relies on the dynamics among three sectors: social, private and government; and that we should not allow only one of them to take over control.  Second, the public space is a shared responsibility and we “must think in the public space beyond its construction. We have to think beyond the project and understand the variables with which we will have to work in the future.” Third, he stressed the importance of considering local factors: “matching the budget and the public politics: allocating according to our possibilities and depending on our ways of thought. Remember that the normativity is not all and neither is zoning”. He ended his participation emphasizing that “in order to build a community, we have to reset the citizenship logic and confidence. Let this forum be the beginning of a long conversation between all the relevant actors”.

 

Juan Pardinas, for his part, made a short closure raising awareness on “the good ideas highlighted in this forum; now the challenge is to continue and systematize the efforts for those ideas to become a reality. To find a consensus space that promotes the citizens’ confidence, for which we have taken one good first step”.

 

Finally, Antonio del Valle Perochena finished two major reflections: “the car must stop being the top priority of CDMX citizens; we have to make walking the first transportation option for them” he stated. He also said that “we need to achieve a consensus regarding the city goals. The common goal is to have a better city, more livable and friendlier”. He closed the event with one commitment: “we have talked about many ideas and proposals that pose important challenges for the following days, to digest and create a document with specific proposals, which is the main idea of this event: specific ideas for the city we want in the future”.

 

In urban development, public policies must keep humans in mind

 

• $4 billion is currently invested in projects along Reforma Corridor, almost equivalent to the value of Canary Wharf in London

16 million people come every day to Mexico City to work and carry out various activities

 

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- On the second day of the CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016, Jan Gehl stressed during his keynote speech that public policies should focus on human beings and not on technology.

Gehl has focused his entire career on the urban environment of large cities such as New York and Sao Paulo and sustained that a city is far more enjoyable when walking 5km than driving for 60km. Gehl pointed out that cars have dulled the senses of smell, sight and enjoyment. «The new paradigm of urban planning tries to create livable cities which allows us to live a healthy life, that is, to focus on our health instead of focusing on technological maintenance”.

Ricardo Monreal, head of the Cuauhtémoc Delegation, said that he was attending the forum «not just from the government, but as a resident of this delegation, with the goal of thinking about the future of the city and the solutions being proposed here.”

Regarding Mexico City, he stressed that this should be an example of innovation and sustainability, «we are here to talk about our future, and we need to build a new social agreement that includes neighbors, developers and investors. New rules of coexistence are necessary.» An example of this is shown by the 4 billion dollars already invested along the Reforma Corridor.

During the third roundtable, which discussed Zoning and the Diverse City, academics, urban specialists, entrepreneurs and authorities agreed that future cities have to plan their development through the consensus of government, private initiative and citizens.

Salomon Chertorivski, head of Mexico City’s Secretariat of Economic Development, called for planners to bear the future in mind. He stressed that while 9 million people live within the borders of Mexico City, the city hosts 15-16 million people a day, meaning that planners must address questions such as where people live and work.

According to Felipe de Jesus Gutiérrez, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (SEDUVI) for Mexico City, the city loses 80,000 citizens on a yearly basis, who move out to nearby areas. In other words, the city is losing its population. “We need to form an urban plan and a draft is under discussion in Mexico City’s Constituent Assembly.”

For Jose Shabot, from the Quiero Casa real estate group, “there are three relevant actors in every project: government, developers and the public”, while stating that entrepreneurs “must work under the law and help generate parks and public spaces”.

Maria Buhigas, from Urban Facts of Barcelona, ​​said that Reforma Avenue in Mexico City «must not be thought of as a longitudinal axis, but as an avenue that unites», adding that «we have to ask ourselves which conditions are necessary for people to live near their place of work.”

The fourth and final roundtable addressed citizen participation and responsibility, with Juan Pardinas, Director General of the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO), stating that it is important to build a different idea of citizenship and vision.

Unlike the previous construction of citizenship grounded on racism, sexism and patriarchy, we currently need a dynamic construction: «Citizenship has to be seen as a toolbox that will serve to build the public space, including the votes of women and the opinions of the minority or marginalized, » said Pardinas.

For Berkeley economist Steven W. Popper, the fundamental question is how to support a process of citizen participation and collaboration. From his perspective, there are three causes of mistrust that impede the construction of citizenship in Mexico: first, the coexistence of many people with different objectives, interests and fears, which can be a breeding ground for corruption; second, not understanding that the urban planning process is more important than the final product; and third, uncertainty, which is a risk without calculation.

In this discussion, María Amparo Casar mentioned that in Mexico the risk of participation is very different for citizens, especially since some are far more exposed to retaliation.

Casar added that «Mexico generally has low-intensity citizens, but we must recognize the causes of this low citizen participation. According to the surveys, very little progress has been made in terms of the rule of law since the 1950s. Surveys say that only 3 to 10 percent of Mexicans have participated in any activity of social manifestation, and most of those that have do so within a church setting. Statistics also reveal that Mexicans do not participate because of a lack of confidence and because they feel that participating, makes no difference.”

 

Antonio Del Valle Perochena, President of Kaluz, as well as by Riccardo Marini, from Gehl Architects, Juan Pardinas, General Director of IMCO, and José Castillo, curator of CoRe Urban Forum CDMX 2016 laid out the conclusions of the two-day forum on Mobility, Public Space, Zoning and Citizen Participation

Antonio del Valle Perochena, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grupo Empresarial Kaluz, affirmed that «above all, we became citizens during these couple of days».

He added that «the car should stop being the first priority for Mexico City’s citizens, and we must ensure that their first choice for transportation is to walk. We want to reach a consensus about the objectives of this city. The common goal is to have a better, more livable and friendly city”.

Closing the event, del Valle Perochena said that «we have discussed many ideas and issues that pose important challenges in the coming days” and committed himself to “record these ideas in a document containing specific proposals. That is the main objective of ​​this event: to propose practical actions to transform Mexico City into the city we want to see in the future.

 

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About CoRe Urban Forum

This forum is made up of a group of citizens (entrepreneurs, academic, citizens, public servants, architects and urban designers), with one vision about the future of Mexico City, and a conviction about the great potential our city has. We are now facing a historic moment in which we can redefine the future, with a vision of a city which empowers all its citizens to the fullest and redefines quality of life for citizens and visitors alike. We seek to reshapre this city through four fundamental topics and a consensus to obtain the city we all want.

 

Press contacts

Francisco Galindo/ Pedro Suárez y Gerson Hernández

fgalindo@zimat.com.mx

psuarez@zimat.com.mx

ghernadez@cepol.com.mx

Welcome Address

Antonio del Valle Perochena, President of the Administration Council of Kaluz

 

Mexico City, December 6, 2016.- On Tuesday, at 3 pm, Antonio del Valle Perochena, Chairman of the Board of Grupo Empresarial Kaluz opened the CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016. The forum took place in Estacion Indianilla, a venue to which he attributed special importance, since “the trolleys that once moved this city in the first half of the 20th century were housed here; it is a silent witness of the electric and sustainable transportation of the past”.

 

To provide a clear context for this forum, he talked about two possible cities, quoting Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. “In the story,” he said, “one city is in progress and the other one is sinking into chaos. Today, I would like to talk about two imaginary cities. One is collapsing due to traffic jams and stress, leading to lost time; the other, instead of using the car, offers different means of transportation, a place where services are no more than 5km away from anyone, a place with good public spaces for all levels of society. These are the two options we face today for Mexico City”.

 

Del Valle Perochena stated that his analogy is highly relevant to the city’s current situation. “The consequence of the first city is waste of time. People often lose at least two hours a day being stuck transportation in the city. This is unmeasurable, both in terms of money and quality of life”.

 

Is there a solution to this chaos, anguish and lack of productivity? “If you ask me”, he said, “I’m convinced that our beloved city has everything to revert what we have been doing over the past decades. However, there is a long road ahead and much to be done”.

 

Del Valle Perochena presented CoRe Foro Urbano CDMX 2016 as a space where different experts will discuss how to best return a good quality of life to the city, revolving around four themes: “Mobility”, “Public Space”, “Zoning” and “Social Participation and Responsibility”.

 

While these themes are not new, their implementation still has a long way to go. For example, “we just have to see how the neighborhoods of Condesa and Roma have been transformed; there are people changing their lifestyle to improve the city. However, as citizens and authorities, we are compelled to bring these options to everyone, and to convince them that this is not only a feasible model, but a necessary one for the city’s survival”.

 

He ended his participation by challenging the panelists that will be participating in the two-day event: “We have gathered the best experts to talk about our city. I would like to invite you to dedicate your effort, talent and intelligence to make one or two short-term actions that could be carried out right away to make a better city for all”.

“It is vital to take space away from cars and give it to bicycles”: Keynote speech by Jan Gehl

 

• “First of all, politicians need to be capable of imagining the city we want for our children and grandchildren”.
• In 2009, Copenhagen was the first city to state its wish to become the best city for people.
• In 2015, 37-45 % of people in New York City cycled to work, which reduced car traffic.

 

 

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- Laureate architect, Danish Jan Gehl, an expert in sustainable urban planning for large cities such as New York or Sao Paolo, was the keynote speaker on the second day of CoRe ForoUrbano CDMX 2016.

 

Gehl began by mentioning some noteworthy data: in 2009, Copenhagen was the first city to state its wish to become the best city for people. Gehl highlighted that, before anything else, it is important for politicians and architects to picture what city they want for our children and grandchildren. Therefore, it is important to stress that public policies need to be focused on people and not in technology. “This is the best way to form cities”, he said.

 

He also mentioned that automobiles have dulled our senses, such as smell, sight and taking in the things around us. For him, a confusion of scale is a very serious matter and has caused cities to grow at rates that mean they can only be travelled by car: “One can enjoy a city more by walking 5km rather than staying inside a car for 60km”, he explained, adding that “the new planning paradigm tries to create inhabitable cities which invite us to live a healthy life, that is, to focus on our health instead of focusing on technological maintenance”.

 

The quality of big cities can be improved. A good example is Copenhagen, which has spent the past 50 years taking care of its inhabitants. Since 1962, it has focused on improving the conditions for citizens. Streets that back then had high traffic flows are not reserved for pedestrians and cyclists. But this transformation was not immediate. Copenhagen had to undergo four stages, from reducing the dependency on cars to making bicycles popular:

 

• 1980, first stage: car lanes were closed and rebuilt as pedestrian-only.
• 1980-2000, second stage: parking lots were eliminated, and substituted by public spaces for gatherings, such as cafés and bars.
• 2000-2009, third stage: the city was promoted as a recreation space: “While reinventing healthier cities, it is important to promote a lifestyle in which biking is more fun than being locked in a car and fighting traffic”, he said.
• 2009, fourth stage: establishing cycle lanes as having preference over car lanes, more spaces for pedestrians and a comprehensive strengthening of public transportation. For example, trains now have enough space to transport users’ bicycles.

 

Gehl mentioned that these stages were systematically recorded by the School of Architecture in Denmark for the information to be used and replicated in other cities. However, Gehl said that “the citizens must take part in the urban design of their cities”.

 

Today, Copenhagen is considered the most livable city in the world, holding the first global position, followed by Melbourne, Helsinki, Tokyo and Vienna.

 

Gehl highlighted other success cases; for example, in 2015, between 37-45 % of the people in New York cycled to work, which has reduced car traffic. Another success case is Melbourne, Australia, which has become an example on how to revitalize a city through the implementation of public policies that benefit the people, such as investing in urban furniture which appeals to passers-by.

 

Gehl finished his keynote speech with an encouraging prospect for Mexico City: «if Tokyo holds the fifth position among the most livable cities, Mexico City has great possibilities”.

 

First Round Table: Mobility 

 

• Mobility must be considered from a perspective where there will be over 5 billion vehicles on roads around the world in the near future.
• There are 5.5 million vehicles in Mexico City.
• The young people of today drive less than their parents and grandparents.

 

Mexico City, December 6, 2016.- The first roundtable of the CoRe Urban Forum CDMX 2016 was led by Camilla Ween and Jan Gehl, with the participation of Laura Ballesteros, Rodrigo Díaz, Edgar Farah, Onésimo Flores, Javier Hidalgo, Michael Kodransky, Andrés Sañudo and Florencia Serrania as panellists to discuss mobility in large cities.  To analyze this challenge in a context where the 21st century comes close to completing its second decade, three topics were discussed: integrate urban development with public transport, which has been neglected in the past; succeed in finding better mobility solutions in terms of quality, especially for large-scale public transport (many boast of using the London or New York subway but it does not have the same reputation in Mexico); and insist on finding alternatives to the use of the car.

 

The experts argued that Mexico City is not so different compared to other cities, given that its citizens suffer from the same consequences coming from vehicles. They said that fossil fuels are certainly killing people and that a concrete action plan to make the city and planet healthier is sorely needed. Concrete ideas must be found in order for people to live side-by-side in truly beautiful cities.

 

In her participation, the architect and urban planner, Camilla Ween, highlighted two crucial questions for mobility projects to have a real impact: the proper use of public funds and changing the way people think about being urban residents. “One such example worked in London, in one of the most densely frequented stations. The station was closed several times due to the amount of people using it. What we did was to create a solution outside the station for people to move without needing to use a car, since the subway was insufficient. This led to the Crossrail, a combination of train and subway”.

 

Ween added that each new mobility project must seek to improve the entire surrounding area, by identifying problems and solving them. This means going out to find areas of opportunity in the zones involved. “More can always be done beyond the scope of the original project. If possible, all the weaknesses of the zone should be identified and fixed: traffic, access to disabled people, allowing foot traffic between two separate neighborhoods, building green areas, and more,” added Ween.

 

For his intervention, the architect and urban planner, Jan Gehl, expressed his skepticism towards automatic or electric cars and whether these could help improve mobility: “it is estimated that 5 billion vehicles will hit the roads in the near future”.

 

For Gehl, cars, even those with environmentally friendly technology, are “stupid for the modern man. It is antiquated to use four rubber tires to move while the atmosphere is being affected. In the future, we must walk, ride bicycles and have an ideal transportation system”.

 

Nevertheless, Gehl did strike an optimistic tone: according to his research, the young people of today drive less than their parents and grandparents. “The antiquated technology of the car has a limited time,” he stated.

 

As part of the roundtable, Onésimo Flores provided some facts: “the challenge Mexico City faces is context. There are currently 400 vehicles for every 100,000 residents. But between 1980 and 2010, the population of Mexico City grew by 20,000 people, while its conurbation grew by 5 million people, most of whom travel to the city for school or work. In reality, we must consider urban development projects.”

 

In her contribution, Florencia Serranía, an expert in technological transport solutions, mentioned that mobility is not the same for those living inside Mexico City and those living in its metropolitan area. She said that the implementation of a proper transportation system would cost at least 30 million pesos a year in mobility investments.

 

According to Laura Ballesteros, an expert in mobility and sustainable transportation, 73% of the federal infrastructure budget goes to cars, which only affect 5.5 million cars. It is thus urgent to ensure better management of transportation means. Ballesteros also provided an optimistic touch: today, 60% of people in Mexico City use public transport, as opposed to just 20% a decade ago.

 

One of the most worrying aspects of mobility in Mexico City was mentioned by Javier Hidalgo, who said it is important to differentiate active mobility and vehicular mobility. The latter is very alarming, even beyond environmental pollution, as it is a contributing factor to diabetes and obesity due to a sedentary lifestyle.

At CoRe Urban Forum, participants united in stating that public spaces must be inclusive

• Revolucion and Patriotismo streets serve as examples of something that needs to be done when Metrobus starts operating in Paseo de la Reforma.
• National and international speakers agreed on the need to turn public spaces into inclusive zones with the people as their focal point, including the development of the Reforma Corridor.

 

Mexico City, December 6, 2016.- The second roundtable at CoRe Urban Forum CDMX 2016 approached the theme of public spaces, with Jose Castillo, curator of CoRe Urban Forum, serving as moderator. The panel included Ethan Kent and Camilla van Deur as main speakers, with Tatiana Bilbao, Guillermo Buitano, Fernanda Canales, Aliza Chelminski, Lili Haua, Amy Kaufman, Tanya Muller, Pakiko Paillie Pérez, Belinda Tato and Luis Zamorano, as participants.

At first, participants agreed that, in order for a public space to work flawlessly, it must have proximity to infrastructure and offer access for locals and visitors, essentially being designed for pedestrian use.

Alberto Martínez talked about the need to discuss the city and public spaces as one: “to think how we can keep strengthening the design of public spaces and review the normativity. We suffer from overregulation, which has let public spaces fall by the wayside.  We need an extensive and accurate picture of public spaces”. He used the Reforma Corridor as an example of “the pending goal of connecting different zones. The challenge is a matter of inclusiveness”, he ended.

Camila van Deurs, associate director and team leader with Gehl, mentioned that other cities have struggled with the same problems that the Reforma Corridor is trying to address. “We are trying to have a holistic approach”, she said, adding that “in order to achieve something in the public space, a change needs to happen in the streets. It is a low-cost first step, compared to aspects such as mobility and infrastructure.”

She noted that sharing experiences is crucial, given that cities learn from each other; and pointed out to short-term successes, such as the Times Square transformation Project, since it had a real impact on this important part of Manhattan.

Ethan Kent, Senior VP for PPS, said that his appreciation of cities lies in the great potential they offer. “We are thinking increasingly every day on how to improve cities”, he said, focusing on the fact that public spaces must include everyone. “We need to turn public spaces into places that allow us to bring people from different segments together”, he said.

Kent gave the example that a city needs to have 10 important public spaces with 10 things to do there. He said accomplishing this must be a clear goal and said this model could be met around Reforma.

Architect Tatiana Bilbao said the public spaces of the Reforma Corridor are designed with visitors and local employees in mind but that local residents are not often considered, which must be corrected.  “Public spaces must involve local residents and become an extension of residential spaces,” she said.

During her intervention, Aliza Chelminsky, a representative for the Cuauhtemoc Delegation of Mexico City, stressed that public spaces also involve the social responsibility of private companies. “It is necessary to have neighbors participate and own the space, to feel a shared responsibility,” she stated. “The citizens must bring culture to the public spaces, talk to those around the public spaces”. She finished stating that the responsibility of government, aside from regulating investments, is to provide safety, apply the law and regulate commerce.

Up to this point, all participants in the panel agreed that the public space issue must be an inclusive argument which considers all actors.

Tanya Müller, Mexico City’s Secretary of the Environment, said that the streets around the Reforma Corridor must include everyone: pedestrians, cyclists and cars. She added that this was achieved in the examples of the Revolucion and Patriotismo avenues. She also highlighed what will be necessary once the Metrobus starts operating along Reforma, and that “we need to include everyone in its re-design”. Lili Haua, from the Bosque de Chapultepec trust, as a representative of the area where the Reforma Corridor ends, also agreed.

Architect Belinda Tato stated that the better a public space is, the more democratic it becomes since a better space can better support citizens. She restated that much more remains to be done along the Reforma Corridor, regarding the social aspect rather than architectural design.

Experts in social participation, authorities, private sector representatives and urban development specialists concluded that the Reforma Corridor must be made into a space which is welcoming for visitors, locals, commerce and employees in the area.

MORE CITY, FEWER PARKING SPACES CENTRAL MESSAGE OF CORE FORO URBANO

• 5.5 million cars circulate in Mexico City
• In Mexico City, there is one car per 4 citizens
• Investing in a suitable transportation system would require at least 30 billion pesos a year
• 76% of the federal infrastructure budget is dedicated to automobile infrastructure

Mexico City, December 7, 2016.- As part of the activities in CoRe I Foro Urbano CDMX 2016 which began yesterday, the main statement issued by the participants in the roundtables was “More city and fewer parking spaces”.

There are 5.5 million cars circulating in Mexico City, which is the same as one car per every 4 citizens. Consequently, investing in a suitable transportation system is crucial and would require a yearly investment of at least 30 billion pesos. Nevertheless, 76% of the federal infrastructure budget is currently specifically to the one dedicated to automobiles.

CoRe Foro Urbano is a space where a multidisciplinary group formed by national and international entrepreneurs, academics, citizens, public servants, architects and urban planners gather to discuss the best solutions for the future of Mexico City, which is already overwhelmed in terms of demographics and economy.

To start proceedings, Antonio del Valle Perochena, Chairman of the Board of Grupo Empresarial Kaluz, invited the attendants to see Mexico City from two perspectives, quoting Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”. He suggested that the first vision was a city taken over by traffic jams and stress, and the other is one where there is no need to use a car given that good public services are within 5km of all: “these are the two options we face today for Mexico City”, he finished.

The forum addressed four main themes: Mobility, Public Space, Zoning and a Diverse City and Social Participation and Responsibility. The forum began discussing the first two.

The first roundtable was led by Camila Ween and Jan Gehl, and participating was Laura Ballesteros, Rodrigo Díaz, Edgar Farah, Onésimo Flores, Javier Hidalgo, Michael Kodransky, Ulises Navarro, Andrés Sañudo and Florencia Serrania.

This group focused on mobility inside big cities in general, and on analyzing Mexico City’s particular problems. They concluded that the following themes need to be urgently addressed: integrating urban development with public transportation, which has been laid aside up to the moment; offering more quality mobility options, especially for mass public transportation (many boast about using the London Tube or New York subway, but look down on Mexico’s subway); and searching for options that can substitute the use of cars.

Participants agreed that Mexico City faces similar challenges as other cities, especially given the frightening consequences of excessive car usage on human beings. They stated that fossil fuels are killing people and that an action plan is needed for the city and the planet to become healthier, involving specific ideas to have a chance to live in really beautiful cities.

The second roundtable on Public Spaces was led by Jose Castillo, curator of CoRe Foro Urbano, Mexico City’s Secretary of Environment Tanya Muller, Ethan Kent and Camilla van Deurs, with the participation of Tatiana Bilbao, Guillermo Buitano, Aliza Chelminski, Lili Haua, Belinda Tato, Roberto Remes and Alberto Martinez.

In this panel, participants agreed that public spaces must first and foremost be inclusive, needing to provide space and integration for local residents, visitors, businesses and those  employed in the area.

Finally, architect and urban design expert Jan Gehl, associate founder of Gehl Architects and one of the foremost gurus of urban design, presented his book “Cities for People”. Over the past five decades, Gehl has devoted himself to reinventing cities so as to integrate the new needs of modern societies. His participation has been decisive in the urban re-design of cities such as Copenhagen, New York, Moscow, Sao Paulo and Singapore.

 

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About CoRe Foro Urbano

The forum is formed by a group of citizens (entrepreneurs, academics, citizens, public servants, architects and urban planners), with a vision of the future of Mexico City, and convinced of the great potential that our City has. Today we are going through a historic moment in which we can redefine the future, with a view to a city that maximizes all its potentials and is redefined by seeking quality of life for its citizens and its visitors. We seek to make city through four fundamental themes in order to create awareness and consensus and have the city that we all want.

 

 

Press contact

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