An
innovative urban development project is activating positive change in
low-income neighborhoods across Mexico City. Despite winning the World Habitat Award in
2011, the city government’s Programa Comunitario de Mejoramiento Barrial
(Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement, or PCMB) is surprisingly
little-known outside Mexico.
Socioeconomic inequality is deeply engrained in
Mexico City’s spatial structure, and neighborhood wealth generally corresponds
with the quality of public services. The PCMB addresses this problem by funding
revitalization projects in economically depressed areas. While living in one
such area, El Pedregal de Santo Domingo, I noticed the program’s impact on
freshly painted buildings that were formerly concrete gray.
Recently painted homes along a street in Mexico
City’s El Pedregal de Santo Domingo neighborhood. Image source: Wangũi Kamonji
* Click
here to learn more about the PCMB.