Mérid's fast and unsustainable urban growth

Traditionally the city of Mérida has been associated with characteristics as calm, human scale, ordered urbanization and a strong presence of cultural elements that creates a well defined local identity. However in the last decades an accelerated and disordered process of urban expansion started to act against the preservation of this characteristics and the good quality of life of the majority of the population of the city.

We can infer the gravity of this phenomenon by checking the numbers related to the expansion of the urban area in the last decades: the area occupied by the city in 1960 was of 3,631 has., by 1980 it had increased to 8,321 has., and by 2000 it had grown to 17,280 has. In the past the slower rate of growth of the city had been accompanied with the gradual appearance of the services that the population required, nevertheless in the last decades, characterized by this fast urban growth, the new neighborhoods lack some facilities as schools, libraries, etc. Also the quality and the quantity of public and green spaces have diminished in most of the new urban areas.

As this fast growth of the city continues, the lack of proper services in some urban areas has become more evident, and the differences between the north and the south of Mérida have increased. In addition, there are a growing number of residential zones occupied by the upper classes of population that are nowadays isolated of the rest of the city by great walls, contributing to highlight the social exclusion.

In terms of ecology and urban mobility, which are two of the main problems of today’s cities, this disordered urban growth worsen both, by making the trips longer and promoting the growth of the number of cars that saturates our streets. As more space gets occupied by automobiles the city becomes less green and friendly for the people.

We need to realize that the biggest issue of our time is to guarantee the sustainability of our ways of living, and because of that we need to act with a more rational approach to all things related with the growth of our city. Is essential to face this problem and understand that the consequences generated by the turmoil in the growth of our city lead to the erosion of our quality of life in near future. The time to act is now!.

All data obtained from the book “Huellas de Mérida. Transcursos y patrones urbanos”, by Ileana Beatriz Lara Navarrete (Biblioteca Básica de Yucatán, Gobierno del Estado, 2011).