Complexes

I do not think that the resignation of our president Enrique Peña Nieto would be positive in the short term. Instability probably would increase. But I want to share why so many people are asking for his resignation, also because the news are not even reaching the majority of the Mexican population. Peña had a controversial campaign, with thousands of reported electoral irregularities . After two years in office, the violence in the country continues , and many other promises are still to be materialized. But all this is normal Mexican politics. Previous presidents in similar situations have not met such a rejection from the national and international communities. The straw that broke the camel's back was the dissapearance and possible murder of 43 students in the village of Ayotzinapa , in the southern state of Guerrro (Acapulco is also in that state, and was last year the 3rd most violent city in the world). The students were intecepted by the local police, there were 6 ki...

On November 10th, a day after the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall , our team Living Mobilities from Mexico City was declared winner of the third edition of the Audi Urban Future Award . Together with José Castillo (team leader, watch the video from his final presentation ) from Arquitectura 911 and Gabriella Gómez-Mont from the Laboratorio para la Ciudad , we were proud and delighted to be declared winners by an international jury , considering the great proposals presented by the teams from Berlin, Boston, and Seoul. Audi Urban Future Award 2014 - Data collectors from Mexico City win the Award 2014 from THE AUDI URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE on Vimeo . Our project proposes to create a new social contract, assisted by technology, to improve mobility not only in terms of efficiency, but also in terms of quality of life. This focusses on Mexico City, but has the potential to be extended to other megacities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. We have a big city wi...

I was just in Berlin for the first time, for the Award Ceremony of the Audi Urban Future Award 2014 (which we won ! But that will be the topic of another post ). The organizers had the great idea to make the ceremony coincide with the Falling Walls Conference and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Incidentally, just before I was in Ensenada for another conference , and on the way to Tijuana airport our hosts took us to the border wall by the sea. That is another city marked by a wall, which although permeable, it separates and divides people. So many touching stories you can hear, I've been reflecting these days how states decisions can affect so much the life of individuals. On the other hand, the fall of the wall is an example of how individuals can change states. The #wall is not an obstacle if you can fly. A photo posted by Carlos Gershenson (@cgershen) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:08pm PST I met some Germans for the first time fifteen years ago, f...