C A S A S G E O

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer) 07/09/2019 at 12:41 • Filed to: None

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Urbanization hit this country like a train; at the moment Mexico has the same amount of cities over one million people than the US does... despite having a third of the population.

In order to support the massive growth of Mexican cities, these funny looking lots of identical houses popped up across the country in the last two decades. Specially in regions with fast growth or cheap land. Named “Casas Geo” after the recently bankrupt developer “Geo” these look like social housing and in some cases such is true.

You would think that a country with 5,000,000 empty houses would be one without homelessness or even irregular settlements, but sadly it is not the case.

These lots were built with little care about services, access to employment, or even considering how inhospitable the cheap land under it was. This lot in Leon is not a big offender since it’s only in the outskirts of the city, but lots far from Mexico City but supposedly part of the metropolitan area, are.

As a consequence, people moved out of these lots and into irregular settlements closer to their sources of income, at times they put themselves and the environment in danger. When it comes to Mexico City, irregular settlements have improper sanitation, little or no access to electricity, and security services. This also in violation of any building code for seismic activity.

These settlements are mostly placed adjacent to recently gentrified areas like Santa Fe, but in protected areas that are not open to regular development.

This 2011 map shows irregular settlements in protected areas, in the last eight years it has gotten significantly worse.

Social housing is a complex topic, and one that governments are sometimes incapable, or unwilling, to understand. It has been something Mexico has struggled with for years, be it the failure of Geo, or the degradation of Tlatelolco, and even the bizarre attempt at a suburb with Ciudad Satelite.

Future Heap Owner > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 12:55

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Holy crap, that 1 mil+ pop city stat is nuts. Do you have any idea what the urban vs rural split is in terms of population?

benjrblant > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 13:00

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https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/singapore/

you might enjoy this podcast on singapore and how they dealt with their natural borders and land restriction. i find their solution to public housing somewhat interesting even if it won’t work in many other areas.

Ash78, voting early and often > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 13:03

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Google Levittown to see the archetype for this in the industrialized world. It’s the forerunner to the master-planned communities in the US that are almost everywhere.

Bottom line: Most people like living in townhomes or detached houses; not high rises. Our nature is to want some independence, but we’re weaned onto modern conveniences and infrastructure AND we have lots of stuff.

Basically I see these as the (i m) perfect combinations of shanty towns and government skyscraper housing projects, but with a façade of normalcy.

Spanfeller is a twat > Future Heap Owner 07/09/2019 at 13:06

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according to the 2010 census it was up to 78% urban; which is a bit below the US’ at 80%. The thing is that we have a huge concentration of people in some urban cores that span across multiple municipalities. Like how Mexico City has 9 million inhabitants, but the metro area has 10 million more.

Spanfeller is a twat > Ash78, voting early and often 07/09/2019 at 13:08

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Ah yes, I have heard of him before, and how VA loans basically kept him super duper rich.

DipodomysDeserti > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 13:23

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I helped erect some irregular housing back when I was in high school. One outside of Puerto Peñasco on a landfill and the others in the mountains outside of Tijuana. There were whole neighborhoods of people basically living in shacks all over the hills outside of Tijuana. Super dangerous areas, but they had nowhere to go and were basically living out of houses made of cardboard and scrap particle board.

There was no sanitation whatsoever. The outhouses just emptied into the street. No running water. A truck would come by once a week and fill up a giant container for each family. There was usually electricity thanks to the neighborhood “electrician ” splicing wires off the main power lines and running them into the neighborhoods.

It was pretty crazy as all the families had men present who worked . They weren’t bums. They’d even finish up stuff on the houses after we left.

That’s high school me in the bottom left with the black hat.

Spanfeller is a twat > DipodomysDeserti 07/09/2019 at 13:38

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I think that the worst part is that so many resources were going to those usesless housing estates while people were creating those communities under suboptimal conditions.

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 13:43

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reminds me of the fraccionamiento i lived in as a wee lad

probably built by them too

Spanfeller is a twat > Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No 07/09/2019 at 13:46

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They went bust a few months ago, maybe the winds of change are finally blowing.

What part of the country was it?

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 13:50

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Morelos

Spanfeller is a twat > Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No 07/09/2019 at 13:52

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Its been a while since I head south there... 

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 14:21

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That's insane. To put that in perspective, Canada has roughly 36 million. That's half of Canada living in a single city.

Spanfeller is a twat > BaconSandwich is tasty. 07/09/2019 at 14:35

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The Mexican valley has around 32 million 

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 16:49

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That is insane.  How empty is the rest of the country?

Spanfeller is a twat > BaconSandwich is tasty. 07/09/2019 at 17:46

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Not much, 90,000,000 people is still a lot of people. Of the five largest metropolitan areas, three are outside of the Mexican Valley. Plus there’s an important population corridor in the border region to the north

The Mexican Valley is not a typically used geographic term; since its very diverse... but its used for CAMe; the commission in charge of the enviroment for that region.

coqui70 > Spanfeller is a twat 07/09/2019 at 21:03

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Bad news for humanity ... but a fantastic harvesting opportunity for our future galactic overlords!