© BBC World’s Busiest Cities

The BBC documentary “World’s Busiest Cities: Mexico City (2017)” gives a good overview of this immense and somewhat chaotic city. It shows the problems and the efforts that accompany Mexico City on a daily basis. Of course, it is not possible to cover the issues in depth in a documentary of about one hour. For example, it does not mention that the featured suburb, Neza, has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Even though crime is too much of a topic in foreign media compared to the good news from Mexico, it is still a big issue especially in the suburbs of the city. I also miss the metro, which serves the entire city every minute, in the coverage of public transport. Instead, the cable car is presented as public transport, which I had not heard of before.

Despite my criticism, this documentary gives a very good impression of the urban planning challenges. I also like that the good as well as the difficult sides of the city are shown and that these are issues that affect the whole city. While living in the (for Mexico City) wealthy neighbourhood in the city centre, I only get a peripheral view of a lot of this.

The documentary can be watched on Apple TV or in a mirrored version (and somewhat in the grey area) on dailymotion.

The documentary covers the following topics:

1. market culture and the popular street food

2. the suburb Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl and the self-built houses

3. the chaotic bus system

4. Tlatelolco and the meeting of the three cultures

5. the “floating gardens” of Xochimilco

6. the city’s big water problem – water shortage and pollution

7. the draining of Lake Texcoco and the sinking city

8. the earthquake region and the early warning system

9. densification on unstable ground: Torre Reforma

10. the cable car – link to the city centre for the poorest and most remote neighbourhoods

11. city and police

12. smog-ridden capital

13. the great avenue “Paseo de la Reforma” and the car-free Sunday