Interpreting the new urban growth pattern and planning role in cities of Mexico. The case of Tijuana

Abstract

This essay proposes interpretation lines of the recent city growth in Mexico, taking as example to Tijuana city located on the border with United States. In the last years the Mexican urban growth has been materialized predominantly in formal settlements, in a sprawl way, and with houses financed by public or private institutions. Although those new peripheral settlements reduce the housing deficit, they generate problems in the three scales of the urban habitability: housing, neighborhood, and city. The problems of efficiency for the economic agents and justice for the residents are deepened at city scale. Those growing problems are product of the particular urbanistic pattern that hose new settlements are configuring in almost all big Mexican cities. This essay discusses those problems, proposes an interpretation of the new urban growth, and recommends urban policies.