Urban Sprawl Coming to a Colonial Mexican Neighborhood Near You

Some readers think I am opposed to "progress." You must hate progress is a mantra always thrown into the face of hacks, like me, who try to make the point that cars and the creation of Super-Duper Mega Shopping Malls now springing up in Mexican towns that attract American Gringos are not only unnecessary but too often, they are destructive.

A friend, and very civilly I might add, pointed out to me that what I appear to want is Mexico from 50 years ago when an abundance of cars didn't exist, where no one, including Americans, would have known what a Super Wal-Mart was, and when the term Gringos still had a negative connotation. That hasn't been my point at all.

Urban Sprawl, and how greedy developers take advantage of this, is what I not only oppose but also fear for Mexico. I could end this article now by saying, "Let's all take a trip to Mexico City and have a look at how Urban Sprawl is working for them, shall we?" That would, perhaps, end the need for my rant.

Urban Sprawl is the literal expansion of a city to the edges of its rural borders. When this happens, environmental and health issues become a problem. Before urban sprawl occurred, there were few Urban Sprawl induced environmental or health problems with which to contend.

Urban Sprawl creates the need for cars. People living in the outskirts, or as they say in Spanish "Las Orillas", have to have a car to get to work and to shop. In former days, people could walk to work and to the store. In cities like Atlanta, Georgia, which has the largest Urban Sprawl in America, one cannot imagine NOT having a car.

Sprawl is considered progressive. This "progress" is seen and touted as a sign of economic vitality. However, the need for cars by the residents in the area of Urban Sprawl increases health-destroying air pollution and increases fatal car accidents. [1] [2]

The next health issue is obesity. The "Convenience of Car Ownership" increases obesity with all the health-destroying side effects. [3]

I asked a professor of a university in Irapuato, Guanajuato, about the obesity rates in the area of Mexico where my wife and I live. He said that with the advent of American junk food and the proliferation of cars in Mexico, the obesity rate jumped from less than 11% to 25% in a 10-year period. (Let me add that trying to find statistics in Mexico is like trying to pull your own teeth. You have to ask as many people in positions of authority as possible to arrive at a consensus because Mexicans do not seem to be as obsessive as we are in doing "studies." And, when they do studies, they are very cautious at releasing results because they fear how it is going to affect tourism.)

As Urban Sprawl grows, so do waistlines and all the health problems associated with it. Walking or biking becomes impossible and people have to have cars to get to work or to those Super-Duper Wal-Mart-type stores. How is this "progressive"? It increases economic vitality but no one lives long enough to enjoy it. They die from the lack of clean air and obesity-related issues.

Urban Sprawl creates a condition called Automobile Dependency. [4] Residential zones become separate and distinct from the zones in which your doctor, store, concert halls, schools, parks, restaurants, and so on sit, making it necessary to have a car in all aspects of one's life. Walking is not only grossly impractical but also often dangerous. You have to have the car, with all of its life-destroying aspects, or you don't go anywhere.

Socially, Americans especially, live in buildings or cars. There is no longer the communion of neighbors as in the days when Americans walked. They see and perhaps wave at one another as they are going from building to car or from car into another building.

Americans are so dependent on their cars. I once read some guy's entry on Internet forum about how he was moving to Bolivia. He said he was going to ship his car to Bolivia when he moved there. He could not live without his car, so he said in the forum. That is dependence!

Urban Sprawl has come to Guanajuato. It is, so I hear, to improve the economic vitality of the city. Superstores and malls have sprung up, making an automobile almost necessary to get to these fantastically hyped modern stores-in-a-mall conveniences. People will now, instead of walking and thus increasing their longevity, drive or take cabs to places where slick TV and newspaper ads convince them they must shop if they want to be "Modern Mexicans."

A think tank in Seattle, Washington, said:

" Sprawl spawns fatal car crashes and fat people and is demonstrably bad for the longevity of people..."[5]

The think tank also reported something applicable to America's Northwest Region I find not only astounding but a harbinger of things to come in Guanajuato.

"The rate of car crashes, the leading killer of Northwest residents younger than 45, drops sharply in the region's most densely populated communities, where residents tend to drive less and walk and ride buses more, said the "Cascadia Scorecard," an annual examination of social trends by the Sightline Institute...A likely reason, according to the study, is that the largest cities in Canada's far-western province -- Vancouver and Victoria -- are by far the most compact in the region, with more mass transportation and much more walking."[6]

I am not opposed to the unfortunate fact that in America, most people have to have cars. I know most have no choice where they live. They have to go where the jobs are. More often than not, they have to have a car or cars in order to survive. I get that. I acquiesce on that point.

What I am opposed to is that in most of The Prime Living Locations in Mexico to which American Gringos are attracted, that Americans cling to the "I have to have the convenience of car ownership." They think they have to have cars that make one fat and destroy the environment. Mexicans, it would seem, as recently as ten years ago in Guanajuato, did not see a need to have cars in such mega-abundance as they do now. Ten years ago, there were no parking nightmares because there were few cars. Now, it is a nightmare. It can be readily seen empirically that most those with cars in Guanajuato spend a great deal of time exercising their desire for the convenience of car ownership by sitting in ridiculous traffic jams.

All you need to see are a few car commercials on TV and you will instantly recognize the same mind-manipulating advertising approach to convincing the Mexican they "need" a car as car manufactures did (and still do) to Americans decades ago. They use the "if you want to be a modern (fill in the nationality blank) person then you must buy our cars." pitch. It is the same hype!

I am not opposed to progress. But, how is Urban Sprawl and all of its life destroying components "progress?" It appears to me that the only ones to benefit financially are those in control who force you to go to their Super Malls to buy crap you don't need. In the little tienda in which my wife shops in our barrio, if they don't have what you want, all you have to do is tell them. Within 48 hours, they find it and have it set aside for you. You walk to the little tienda, you get what you need, there is no pollution and you burn calories. Health all around!

Humanity disappears in Urban Sprawl.

People responsible for Urban Sprawl have forgotten what cities are for. The cities are for the people. Urban Sprawl, with all its inherent horrors, benefits the people with the money and power to get their way. It does not benefit the city's residents.
People, in many cases, must live in cities. Yet, those with the most to gain are redesigning cities for cars, businesses, and developers but not for the people who have to live in them.

I could walk a short distance to the Mega Super Store through a tunnel to shop if I wanted to. I could do this were it not for the hundreds of cars with oxygen-depriving car exhaust that drive through the tunnels at breakneck speeds. It is impossible to breathe and I am in danger of being creamed by some young macho guy who is overconfident of his ability to control a car going the speed of light. The location of the Mega Super Store is such that people have to drive or ride in an automobile to get there. And, in a colonial city, this thing is a monstrosity. It looks like an American mall. The builders could have made the thing look colonial. They didn't!

If cities are places in which humans must have a life, how is throwing them out of their apartment building and destroying their home in favor of building a public parking garage a sign of progress? In Guanajuato, people have to have a house in which to live; they don't live in cars. In spite of this, a large apartment complex was torn down in order to build a spiffy new parking garage. Cars were favored over the people, most of whom were elderly. Machines that people do not need to survive in this city were given preference over people's homes. Those who benefited were the owners of the parking garage. That is what I oppose.

How is this a good thing?

How is this progress?