‘Gringo Go Home’ Won’t Solve Mexico City’s Problems
Good or bad, gentrification by Americans and other foreigners pales before the acute challenges faced by one of the world’s largest cities.
Street lamp pole on Colima Street, Roma Norte, Mexico City, March 9.
Photographer: Juan Pablo Spinetto/Bloomberg
In the ongoing universal tumult over gentrification, Mexico City surely must be one of the world’s fiercest battlegrounds.
The fast transformation of some of its most traditional neighborhoods — Condesa, Roma and Juárez, mainly — has locals, activists and chroniclers on edge. Complaining about the mushrooming number of trendy cafés and expensive rentals has become a favorite pastime in this self-absorbed microcosm. And who are the favorite villains in this story, even over the much-hated real-estate developers? It’s the Americans.