No. 29 (2022): Anuario de Espacios Urbanos, Historia, Cultura y Diseño

Between 2016 and 2017, the most recent reform of the Mexican capital materialized. Specifically, on January 29, 2016, the adjustments to the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States regarding the Political Reform of Mexico City were published, which allowed, as of September of that year, the establishment of the Constituent Assembly, body that would approve the Political Constitution of Mexico City on January 31, 2017, published on February 5 in the Official Gazette of the city government. This fact is loaded with a political-cultural history that goes back at least four decades. During the eighties –the so-called lost decade–, the tensions between different citizen groups and the (federal-local) government that had been expressed since 1968 unfolded. These increased since the 1985 earthquakes and the 1988 elections, and led to in the local political scene to the articulation of some of the left in a new political party, as well as the formation of the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District (ARDF) as the first body of local representation (1988-1997). The ARDF promulgated in 1994 the first Government Statute of the Federal District. Three years later, in 1997, the ARDF became the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) (1997-2018) and the first elections for Head of Government of the Federal District were held -erased since the promulgation of the Organic Law of the District and the Federal Territories of 1928-. With the Political Constitution of Mexico City (CPCDMX), the ALDF gave up its place to the Congress of Mexico City in 2018. Thus, the local Constitution represented the vanguard point in a process of complex, conflictive and, at times, change, contradictory for the Mexican capital. During this reform journey, the city went from 8,831,079 inhabitants in 1980 to 9,209,944 in 2020, a relatively low rate that contrasts with the growth in housing that will go from 1,754,727 to 2,756,319. At the metropolitan level, the territorial extension of urbanization went from 61,000 to 235,000 hectares, and the population will jump from 14.2 million inhabitants in 1980 to 21.8 million in 2020. This urbanization process was structured unevenly, which strengthened segregation in the capital, with a population in a situation of poverty that is accentuated (30% and another 36% in vulnerability due to income or social deprivations) (Coneval, 2018), in addition to the increase in the perception of insecurity (ENSU- INEGI). Despite the outsourcing of the city, the environmental issue continued to be critical; the management of water and waste without solution; power consumption increased; that is to say, a collapse scenario that contrasts with the rise of financial real estate capital in the production of the city. Given this context –and despite the fact that the time elapsed of the most recent regulatory framework of the city is short–, this issue of the Yearbook of Urban Spaces deems it relevant to stop along the way to reflect from different points of view on the principles and mandates of the Political Constitution of Mexico City and evaluate what their effects have been on the urban reality. The articles that make up the dossier: "5 YEARS AFTER THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO CITY" offer a reflective and analytical overview of some of its effects, impacts and imprints in its first five years through three thematic axes: the Constitution and human rights in the city, the challenges of the city from the Constitution and the Constitution and the planning of the city. The first article by Guillermo Ejea Mendoza, "Constitution, inequality and territorial imbalance", analyzes the incidence of the Political Constitution of Mexico City in the structural transformation of the capital. Based on the review of various documents and the projects of the Institute for Democratic and Prospective Planning, it underlines the relative change in the way of conceiving urban development with respect to previous governments. In this sense, the state power has resumed driving so as not to leave everything to the market, despite this, the impulse to social, economic and urban development has focused on central and consolidated areas. Consequently, the author points out, it is contradictory that, as in previous years, the same areas are excluded from this new model of urban development. What is missing in any case is to fulfill these new ideals and ensure that social and economic justice are linked to territorial justice. In "Multicultural City: Limits and scope of the recognition of rights in the native peoples of Mexico City in the local constitution, secondary laws and government acts", Martha Angélica Olivares Díaz and Alejandro Velázquez Zúñiga examine the challenges and obstacles that they have had to confront the original towns and neighborhoods, particularly in the mayor's office of Xochimilco. One of the central problems, say the authors, lies in the formulation of secondary laws that result in ignorance of cultural diversity. However, the original peoples manage to advance in their demands despite the power of the State. Despite its recent creation, the Institute for Democratic and Prospective Planning of Mexico City has had to face some dilemmas “in order to make planning an exercise legitimately democratic. In this sense goes the analysis of the article by Jasmin Anavel Monterrubio Redonda in "Dilemmas of the Institute of Democratic and Prospective Planning of Mexico City for the democratization of the city planning process". The author maintains that for its operation some variables must be considered: management, the organization of the teams to attend to the different actors and the definition of other participatory scenarios. Despite this, it seems that the Institute was created only to comply with the administrative issue rather than to seek a true transformation. Miguel Ángel Ramírez Zaragoza in “The right to the city in Mexico City. From the letter to the Constitution: 2007-2017” raises the relevance of the Charter of Mexico City for the Right to the City and its inclusion in the Political Constitution of Mexico City. It highlights the importance of social participation as the articulating axis to assert this right. But despite having created the Institute for Democratic and Prospective Planning, adequate strategies have not been drawn up to promote the full exercise of the right to the city. Juana Martínez Reséndiz in “Urban development and right to care in the Political Constitution of Mexico City. Contributions for your discussion” examines the problems that women face in care activities in the context of urban development. It exposes the need to modify the approach regarding domestic and care work assigned only to women, which are unpaid activities. The objective is for this to acquire a legislative dimension and for Mexico City to become a city of care. In the Research Articles section on the urban phenomenon, two contributions focus on the methodological dimension. On the one hand, Giovanni Marlon Montes Mata and Rafael Monroy Ortiz, in the text "Among urban fecal stenches, misery and intestinal diseases in Cuernavaca", analyze the underdeveloped urban structure of the city ​​of Cuernavaca which discharges wastewater without mediating treatment to the ravines. In particular, they examine the correspondence between poverty, intestinal diseases and contaminated wastewater. They expose the way in which sanitation has been conceived and its link with environmental deterioration and the health of the inhabitants. The authors conclude that solving the problem would bring fiscal, environmental and public health benefits. On the other hand, Christof Göbel and Elizabeth Espinosa Dorantes in "Reasons for walking in the center and periphery of Mexico City (CDMX)" propose that the location of the spaces and the perception of these affect the users. They offer three case studies: the subdivision of Sayavedra County and the popular neighborhood El Molinito, which will be compared with the Madero pedestrian corridor in the Historic Center of Mexico City. In their work they conclude that the location, the valuation of the public space and the perception of the territory condition the possibility of carrying out a pedestrian route. The Publication Reviews section offers two book reviews that offer a critical look at the most recent urban reproduction processes. In the first place, Blanca Rebeca Ramírez Velázquez makes a detailed review of the work “Multiteritorialidades del Neoliberalismo. Experiences in Mexico City” coordinated by Carmen Valverde, Luliana López Levi and Carla Filipe Narciso. Immediately, Lisett Márquez López does the same with the book “City in dispute. Urban policy, citizen mobilization and new urban inequalities”, coordinated by Francisco Javier de la Torre Galindo and Blanca Rebeca Ramírez Velázquez. The issue closes with the special Interview that the editorial coordinators of the AEUHCD held with Enrique Ortiz Flores, a leader in social struggles for socio-spatial justice in Mexico, Latin America and the world. The meeting with Enrique Ortiz provides reflective, critical and propositional elements on the challenges and possibilities of the Political Constitution of Mexico City. María Esther Sánchez Martínez Francisco Javier de la Torre Galindo