On July 27th, 2004 thousands of citizens dressed in white marched down the streets of Mexico City demanding safety in what was claimed to be one of the largest demonstrations the city has witnessed to date. What distinguished this event from the countless other demonstrations that take place in the city was the central role played by the middle and upper classes. The explicit opposition that many of them show to the party in power has turned issues of crime and safety in Mexico City into extremely political questions. However, beyond the political debate of whether fear of crime is being used and cultivated to achieve political ends and to discredit the current administration, crime is without doubt a major concern shaping public life in the city. The statistics published by city government reveal a substantial rise in crime starting in 1993 and reaching its peak in 1997. Since then crime has gradually decreased, but it is still higher than in 1993. Crime rates also remain comparatively higher than those in other cities.

Fear of crime has promoted the militarisation of public space and the spread of defensible spaces throughout the city. Newcomers are often surprised by the highly visible widespread presence of armed public and private security forces. Public space, rather than being a place of respite and freedom in this bustling metropolis, is nowadays a constantly policed and surveyed environment. In parallel to this militarisation of public space, more and more neighbourhoods are turning into gated communities. Every couple of blocks neighbours get together to install an alarm system, hire private security, and sometimes close their streets off to traffic. Gated communities are, however, no longer limited to the upper classes. The vast number of low-quality affordable residential complexes that are currently being built at a rapid pace are also single-use, gated communities. As a result of these processes, the city is systematically turning inward – into homes, offices and shopping malls. The evidence in current research on gated communities suggests that far from relieving urbanites from the fear of crime, defensible environments enhance these feelings of fear. Furthermore, gated communities legitimise residential segregation and are one of the elements behind the increasing inequality and polarisation of cities. Rather than building these enclaves, urban design should contribute to the creation of open environments that promote citizens’ identification and involvement with the city. Working together with efficient policies aimed at addressing the sources of crime, urban design can play an important part in alleviating perceptions of crime and in actually securing public spaces. Jane Jacobs’ classic text on New York’s Greenwich Village has long since demonstrated that certain design principles can facilitate the enforcement of informal yet effective security by people themselves.

Demographic expansion, urban sprawl, and fear of crime have resulted in the disintegration of the city – traditional public spaces now have a reduced significance in public life. Interaction within public spaces has been replaced by interaction through the placeless invisible links of radio, television, video, and the internet. The majority of the inhabitants of Mexico City stay at home rather than use the city in their free time. They do so as a conscious effort to free themselves from the urban hubbub but also, very importantly, as the result of the unequal provision of open and green spaces as well as entertainment and cultural facilities. Initiatives such as the recent redevelopment of the Chapultepec Park - Mexico City’s largest and more inclusive green space - and the celebration of free open-air events in the historic centre of the city are positive actions that the Mexico City government has undertaken with the aim of strengthening public life, bringing people together, and encouraging civic engagement. Improving and revitalising existing public spaces, as well as providing good quality open and green spaces in the vast areas currently devoid of them, ought to be regarded as a fundamental point in the agenda if we are to build socially integrated cities.

An additional trend affecting public life in the city is the increased privatisation and commercialisation of public spaces. Face to face interaction now mostly takes place in the new spaces of shopping malls and transport hubs. The amount of public space provided by the colonial plazas is becoming increasingly residential in comparison to the spaces created with premeditated functions in mind the most common of which is consumption. To an important extent, this predetermines the kinds of interaction and activities that take place within them. In addition, the fact that these spaces are characterised by constant surveillance and regulation of access means that they come to reinforce the rise of social exclusion in the city.

Author: Iliana Ortega-Alcazar