My Observations of Mexico City

I first revisited Mexico City (CDMX) on a solo trip ten years ago. Despite warnings from friends about personal safety at the time, I found Mexico City to be one of the world's most dynamic and unexpected cities. I spent six days in the city back then and genuinely enjoyed every minute. When the opportunity for a second visit came around, I had no hesitation. Secretly, I was also curious to see how the city has changed. But more importantly, I want to see how much I have changed. I would love to think that the life experiences of the past ten years prompted me to be more introspective and observant. After all, isn’t that one of the benefits of getting older traveling? So below are just some of my personal observations of Mexico City on this recent trip.

Mexico City Is Sinking… Fast!

Grown out of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City today is a sprawling metropolis of 20+ million residents. Soon after the Spanish conquest, the city’s extensive canal system was paved over to conform with the standard set by a Spanish colonial city of the grid and broad boulevards. In a matter of a century, the surrounding Lake Texcoco was drained to accommodate the expanding city. Spaniards definitely did not know much about the soggy soil of the lakebed when they decided to construct massive colonial structures, such as the imposing Metropolitan Cathedral or the National Palace.

The “dancing” facade in the Centro Historico.

Unsurprisingly, the weight of these buildings was not properly supported. However, the real trouble for Mexico City was that the city was unable to provide an adequate water source with its growing population. In the absence of a reliable water supply, the residents took the matter into their own hands by digging private wells on their own land. The result is a geological phenomenon called subsidence. According to the latest study from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), part of the city was as much as 20 inches each year. Translating that in the period of 150 years, the drop would be approximately 65 feet. The sinking rate is even more drastic just outside of the city proper.

Even though Mexico City’s annual rainfall is as high as places like London or Paris, the lack of urban green space and the impermeability of the city’s surface made replenishing the groundwater next to impossible. The city’s issue with the water table is so acute that many urban scholars consider the city’s issue the most serious environmental challenge any city has to take on one way or another. Subsidence in the city may be manageable if not for the fact that the settlement rate varies greatly.

The leaning Church of Our Lady of Loreto.

For anyone who cares to look, the clue of this plight is everywhere, particularly around the Centro Historico. Just about every colonial structure takes on the slant of the subsidence. The severity of their tilting varies greatly from one building to another. One of the most pronounced examples would be the UNAM building next to Palacio Postal. As I walked along the side of the building, the “sagging” of the building facade was as pronounced as anything we saw in Amsterdam. Unsurprisingly, the most endangered buildings are the city’s numerous stone churches. With their soaring bell towers and thick walls, many are tilting as much as 15 degrees.

The Old Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

While major shrines like the Metropolitan Cathedral received multi-million stabilization efforts, most were left to their own devices. It is not uncommon for many churches to be closed to the general public outside the designated time of worship. One such great example would be Our Lady of Loreto, the last church built in the colonial period. The uneven sinking has caused the loss of almost all of its original frescos and is listed by the Archdiocese of Mexico as in imminent danger of being lost. With so many historical and religious monuments under threat, insufficient resources exist to address worsening conditions.

Besides the historical monuments, evidence of sinking could also be found on any sidewalk. As buildings settle, the structure separates from the adjacent sidewalks. Before you know it, a 10-inch gap has developed between them. This could happen even to modern buildings on Paseo de la Reforma as new as twenty years old. So, the next time you see an exceedingly tall stair riser at the building entry, maybe take a second to think of the effect of the ongoing environmental disaster. Only god knows what may happen when the next major earthquake hits.

Mass Transportation Is Great (In Theory)

Behind every world-class city is its great infrastructure. As far as travelers are concerned, no infrastructure is as relevant as mass transit. For a bustling metropolis, Mexico City’s mass transportation system is extensive. With twelve lines, the Metro is the second-largest subway system in the Western Hemisphere. To encourage the use, the subway fare is capped at $5 pesos per trip, less than a tenth of the cost of riding on New York’s subway system. Because of the doggy reputation of the street taxis, I took the subway all across the city during my trip ten years ago.

Compared to New York’s system, Mexico City’s subway system is relatively straightforward. There are no different express and local trains and no different routing between peak and off-peak times. There is also no “mega station” where four or five lines converge. Riding the metro is an experience in itself. The plethora of roving vendors and overlapping music made the New York subway feel like a yoga studio. Visually, the metro may not hold the candle to the Moscow Metro, but there are several architecturally significant stations by renowned designers such as Félix Candela and Luis Barragán.

Architecture aside, the metro also has many unique features worth noting. Perhaps the most interesting is the employment of a system pictographic symbol. Each individual station is assigned a unique symbol; it was created at a time of rapid urbanization. With the inflow of illiterate migrants from the countryside, these symbols came in handy to help new residents navigate the system. Designed by American graphic designer Lance Wyman, the icon denotes the historical or geographic features of the station’s surroundings. The bold graphic system makes wayfinding incredibly effective. It would be very helpful in picking up some Spanish or Nahuatl vocabulary.

ECOBICI, the city’s bike-share platform.

Since my first visit in 2012, Mexico City’s public transit system has expanded to include four new MetroBus lines and the bike-share system called ECOBICI. But the biggest changes related to transit during the past ten years have nothing to do with the metro system. Ride-hailing apps like Uber and Taxify fundamentally changed the face of the city’s transit infrastructure for visitors. As much as I enjoyed the city’s transit system, Uber stands out for its convenience and speed. In this pandemic environment, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of the subway is not as appealing as the comfort of a private car.

On average, we found Uber cut travel time in half and cost anywhere between $60 to 250 pesos per trip within the city. It was much more expensive than the $5 pesos subway ride. But considering that time is your most valuable currency on vacation, the cost of Uber rides is justified. Of course, you also have to factor in the inherent unpredictability of the city’s traffic. Sometimes, it may take fifteen minutes to move one block. To avoid this problem, it would be wise to consider your pick-up location carefully. We made the fatal mistake of requesting a pick-up outside our Airbnb in Centro Historico. The usual 45-minute journey to Xochimilco ended up taking twice as long.

La Pastelería Ideal Is King

Walking around the city center, you are bound to notice that many chilangos on the street carry a box or package with a distinct pattern and marking. For a few days, we were trying to figure out exactly what kind of package everyone was carrying. The packages came in different sizes, and judging from the people carrying them, they would be a product for people of all backgrounds and economic means. While wandering the Centro Historico one afternoon, I spotted the familiar blue and white pattern! It was a bakery called La Pastelería Ideal.

Not many people ordered only one item from Pastelería Ideal.

Founded in 1927, this bakery is a local institution immensely popular with the locals. There was a solid fifty people in line to get into the shop. Once inside, I was truly stunned by the scale of the whole operation. The bakery is divided into separate departments: cookie bar, cake stations, buns, chocolates, and tarts. The dizzying array of items on offer is impressive. The room is filled with rows and rows of oversized trays filled with pastries of all kinds. Compared to the baked items back home, the portion size at Pastelería Ideal is monstrous, but no customer seems to be fazed. Instead, people piled them high on their enormous metal trays. Customers jostled each other as soon as the staff brought out another fresh tray of pastry.

The check-out process is quite a spectacle in itself. After standing in line, a staff member wrapped your bread in a box or paper-wrapped parcel. The speed and precision of these ladies are truly remarkable. After wrapping your bread, she would give you a paper check to bring to the cashier. We went through the crowd to pick up your wrapped package upon payment. Don’t expect to get in and out of this bakery in a dash. This is perhaps why I may be the only customer buying less than five pieces of pastries per visit.

These ladies are like human calculators.

Honesty, the bread and pastry here are nothing to write home about. That said, I consider a visit here a must for any visitor to Mexico City. With the unit price averaging between $8-20 pesos, La Pastelería Ideal is the epitome of a “democratic institution” where residents of diverse means and backgrounds would come for their fixes. The popularity of this place is truly legendary. Indeed, I even saw entrepreneurial vendors proudly reselling La Pastelería Ideal’s items just a few blocks from the bakery! I guess these vendors provide the necessities for those who don’t have the stamina or time to stand in line inside the bakery.

The Frida Craze Is Real

Because of the pandemic-related restrictions, reserving museum tickets ahead of time is essential nowadays. Mexico City is blessed with many museums ranging from the National Museum of Anthropology to the swanky Museo Jumex. Of all the museums in the city, no place is as popular as the Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán. Ahead of our visit, it seemed like tickets were sold out more than three weeks in advance. Even with advanced reservations, we still had to queue for another fifteen minutes. During that time, at least three dozen tourists were turned away because of their lack of reservation. You could imagine their frustration.

While I have seen her works in many other museums, I must admit that I knew very little about Frida Khalo. Right after booking the museum tickets, I put on the 2002 movie Frida to get acquainted with the stories of this legendary artist (and to hope it is more facts than fiction). While her husband, Diego Rivera, may be the most celebrated Mexican artist of all time, Frida captured the public imagination. Her compelling life stories and free spirit are a thing of legend. From his physical disabilities to friendships with communist giants like Leon Trotsky, the movie of her life pretty much wrote itself. This may explain the popularity of her former home. This house-museum is in a remarkable state of preservation. Her specially-made easel and wardrobe collection give visitors an intimate portrait of her extraordinary life.

*The Two Fridas* at the Museo de Arte Moderno.

Considering the popularity of the Frida Kahlo Museum, it came as a surprise that many of Frida’s artworks in Mexico City received relatively muted attention from tourists. One such example is The Two Fridas at the Museo de Arte Moderno. This painting was the artist’s first large-scale painting and is universally considered one of her most significant works. For an artist known for self-portraits, you would think there is a line out the door to see this magnificent painting. Instead, we did not see another tourist in the entire gallery. So, I am convinced that it isn’t really about the arts, after all.

Facadism In Full Swing

Located in an active seismic zone with ongoing issues related to subsidence, Mexico City’s architectural heritage is under constant threat. The earthquake of 1985 here caused the collapse of 412 buildings, and over three thousand others suffered serious damage. Most were demolished rather than fixing the existing structural problem, with only the historical facade preserved because of its historical significance. Known collectively as façadism, this practice could be found everywhere, particularly in nations where locals may have an innate fascination/ambivalence toward their own colonial heritage.

I was surprised by just how prevalent façadism is in Mexico City. I am unsure whether this is the result of government directives or a genuine interest in preserving the appearance of the historical center. After roaming around the Mexico City for a few days, I found spotting façadism sometimes difficult. For the most part, the new construction behind the facade is quite anonymous and “appropriate.” Interestingly, a couple of contemporary buildings, such as Teodoro Gonzalez de León’s Banamex Headquarters (1989), seem to like an ironic critique of pervasive façadism in the city. Of course, there are also a few rather absurd examples of façadism. My favorite would be the absurd integration of a 19th-century house facade into the massive Sanborns Department Store in Juárez.

Among the architectural community, “façadism” is often regarded as a somewhat degenerative subset of the post-modern movement of the 1970s. For most architects and preservationists, the practice violates the principle of “forms follow functions.” For me, the popularity of façadism signals the failure of modern and contemporary architecture to win the public's hearts. Personally, I don’t believe one architectural style is superior to another if done well. However, it is also true that you rarely see modern facades preserved. Like or hate me, I am genuinely happy to see how Mexico City has held on to some fragment of their heritage.

What Time Is It In Mexico City?

More than any other city I could think of, Mexico City puts on so many faces depending on the time of the day. We arrived at the airport at 8 am and were pleasantly surprised by how quiet and tidy Centro Historico was. Compared to a typical American city, the level of cleanliness here was entirely unexpected. Most remarkably, we were whisked from the airport terminal to our Airbnb apartment near Zocalo in less than fifteen minutes. During that Uber ride, I couldn’t help wondering where everybody was. Was this typical for Mexico City on a weekday? After a two-hour nap on the building’s rooftop, we emerged out of a building to a completely different city. By mid-morning, the city center has become a busy marketplace with shoulder-to-shoulder street vendors.

Late-night snack vendor in Centro Histórico.

Our rookie mistake was to underestimate the horrendous traffic through Centro Histórico in the middle of the day. In my naivety, I arranged to have an Uber pick us up in the middle of the busy neighborhood. We ended up stuck in a busy street market; it took us forty minutes to go through a few city blocks. We were grateful that we were not hurrying to make an appointment. After a few days, we finally figured out the city's rhythm. It seems like the busy street markets typically ran from ten to sunset. After eight o’clock, the street empties out completely. The city’s army of sanitation workers would clear out all the garbage by midnight with military-like precision. Depending on the time of the day, one’s perception of Mexico City would be completely different.

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