Contemporary Issues of Mexico City

Among the issues that the government faces, none is more important to Mexicans than the rapid increase in street crime.

Although statistics are unreliable, observers agree that robbery, assault, and murder have increased dramatically since 1994.

Mexico City has gone from one of the safest metropolitan areas in the world to one of the most dangerous.

Health care is also a pressing issue in Mexico City.

Nationally, 36 percent of Mexicans had access to health-care coverage in 1995, while 22 percent used such services.

In the Federal District, 46 percent of the people had access to health services the same year, but only 18 percent used them.

Although the residents in the Federal District have higher than average access to health care, infant mortality rates are among the highest in the nation—21 deaths among 1,000 infants under the age of one.
These rates are so high because access to health care is distorted, largely confined to middle and upper classes.

Large concentrations of low-income families do not have adequate health care.

In addition, Mexico City’s extraordinarily high levels of air pollution are particularly detrimental to the health of infants. Homeless children are increasingly an issue, too.

Mexico was estimated to have 13,373 children living on the streets in 1995.

Adequate housing has long been a problem in the capital, although the Federal District ranks well above the average for the entire country. For example, the average occupant per room was 1.1 in the Federal District in 1995, but 1.5 nationally.

More than 75 percent of private homes in the Federal District had 3 or more rooms in 1995, compared to 66 percent nationally.

Housing in the Federal District ranks higher than other parts of the country in terms of qualitative services, such as water and sewage.

Mexico City, like so many metropolitan areas worldwide, faces problems because workers do not live near where they work.

Mexico City has excellent subway and bus systems, but they are inadequate given the number of daily commuters.

In addition, the freeway system has not kept pace with the increased use of automobiles.

Automobile pollution, which accounts for two-thirds of all air pollution in the city, reduced visibility from more than 16 km (10 mi) in the 1930s to less than 4 km (2.5 mi) in the 1960s.

It also has created serious smog problems. Since mountains surround the city, the smog often remains trapped in the valley basin.

The government has attempted to alleviate traffic congestion by constructing a controlled-access beltway, the Periférico, along the city's western and southern edges. It has also created a grid of high-volume roads crossing the city at regular intervals.

In the late 1980s, the government resorted to a system whereby cars with certain license plates could travel within the city only on selected days.

None of these approaches has solved the city's air pollution problems. Air pollution in the city reaches harmful levels more than half the days of the year.