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Mexico CityMexico City{| align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 class=toccolours width=300 style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px #aaa solid" |+ '''Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico''' |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Latitude''' || 19° 24′-19° 03′ N |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Longitude''' || 98° 57′-99° 22′ W |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Chief of Government of the Federal District|Chief of Government''' || Andrés Manuel López Obrador |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Surface''' (km²) || 1,547 km² (Mexican Federal District|D.F.)<br>4,986 km² (Greater Mexico City) |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Population|Population''' || 8,605,239 hab. (2000) (Mexican Federal District|D.F.) |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Density|Density''' (hab/km²) || 5,799/km² (2000) |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Time zone''' (UTC) || -6 UTC Central Standard Time Zone|CST |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Postal code''' || DF |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''ISO 3166-2 code''' || MX-DIF |- |bgcolor=#E8E7DB| '''Calling codes''' || '''Country''' +52 / '''Area''' 55 |} '''Mexico City''' (Spanish language|Spanish: ''Ciudad de México'') is the federal capital of, and largest city in, Mexico. It geographically spans the north portion of the Mexican Federal District|Distrito Federal ("D.F."), although the metropolitan area extends to the Mexico (state)|state of México to the north of the Federal District, and to the state of Hidalgo. According to government statistics Mexico City is the largest List of metropolitan areas by population|most populous conurbation in North America, and second in the world, after Tokyo, with approximately 27.1 million people. Though its urban area is the third most populous in the world, what is officially known as Mexico City (under the limits of the Federal District) is the most populous city in the world; that is, the greatest number of people governed by one mayor. Mexico City is centered at Geographic_coordinate_system|geographic coordinates {{coor dm|19|24|N|99|9|W|}} in south central Mexico. Greater Mexico City forms a rough ellipse 40 kilometer|km (24.9 statute mile|mi.) east to west and 60 km (37.3 mi.) north to south and has a total area of approximately 5,000 square kilometre|km² (1,391 square mile|mi.²), making the urban area one of the largest in the world. The city's average elevation is 2,240 metres (7,349 foot (unit of length)|feet) above sea level. == History == ''For the Pre-Columbian history of the city, see: Tenochtitlan.'' Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés first arrived in the area, then the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, in 1519, but did not succeed in conquering the city until August 13, 1521, after long fierce fighting that destroyed most of the old Aztec city. The city served as the capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain from c. 1525 to the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence|War of Independence in 1810, and of the various Mexican states afterwards. Most of Mexico City's growth in population occurred in the late 20th century. In 1950 the city had about 3 million inhabitants. By 2000 the estimated population for the city proper was around 18 million. The city hosted the 1968 1968 Summer Olympics|Summer Olympics. At 07:17 on September 19, 1985, the city was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale which resulted in the deaths of between 5,000 (government estimate) to 20,000 people and rendered 50,000-90,000 people homeless. One hundred thousand housing units were destroyed, together with many government buildings. Up to USD 4 billion of damage was caused in three minutes. There was an additional magnitude 7.5 aftershock 36 hours later. [http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/world/1985_09_19.html USGS Earthquake Report] == Modern Mexico City == Image:Mexico.DF.Chapultepec.02.jpg|thumb|left|200px|A view along Paseo de la Reforma, a 12-km-long avenue in Mexico City showing the Torre Mayor, the tallest skyscraper in Latin America at 225m === Attractions === Famous landmarks in Mexico City include the Zócalo, the main central square with its time clashing Spanish-era Cathedral, modern-times Palacio Nacional, and ancient Aztec temple ruins. (The Templo Mayor was found in the early 1900's while digging to place underground electric wires.) The trademark golden angel of independance found on the wide, elegant avenue Paseo de la Reforma, modeled after the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France|Paris. The Avenida de los Insurgentes, locally said to be the longest street in the world, goes 28.8 kilometer|km (18 miles) from end to end of the city. Chapultepec park houses the Chapultepec Palace museum on a hill that overlooks the park and its numerous museums, monuments and the national zoo; the National Museum of Anthropology, the Palacio de Bellas Artes|''Bellas Artes'' - Fine Arts Palace which is a stunning white marble theater/museum whose weight is such that it has gradually been sinking into the soft ground below, the Plaza of the Three Cultures in the Tlatelolco neighborhood, and the shrine and Basilicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In addition, the city has around 160 museums, over 100 art galleries, and some 30 concert halls. In many locales (The Palacio Nacional and the Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia to name a few), there are murals by Diego Rivera. He and his wife Frida Kahlo lived in the southern suburb of Coyoacán which can be visited daily. Nearby was the house of Leon Trotsky, where he was murdered. === Transportation === Mexico City is served by the ''Mexico City metro|Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro'', an extensive metro system (207 km), the largest in Latin America, the first portions of which were opened in the 1960s. One of the busiest in the world, the metro transports more than 4 million people every day, surpassed only by Moscow's (7.5 million) and Tokyo's (5.9 million). It is heavily subsidized, and it is one of the cheapest in the world, each trip currently costing Mexican peso|MXN $2 (around Euro|EUR 0.13 or United States dollar|USD 0.19). A number of stations display Pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture that was discovered during the metro's construction. However, the Mexico City metro|Metro reaches only a fraction of the total inhabited area of the city, and therefore an extensive network of bus routes has been implemented. These are mostly managed by private companies which are allowed to operate buses as long as they adhere to certain minimal service quality standards. The city government also operates a network of large buses, in contrast with the privately operated microbus|microbuses, with fares barely exceeding that of the Metro and superior service. Electric transport other than the metro also exists, in the form of trolleybuses and the Xochimilco Light Rail line. A new project is under construction to create the city's first bus rapid transit line, the Metrobús, on Avenida Insurgentes, in order to reduce pollution and decrease transit time for passangers. Image:MexicoCityTaxis2004.jpg|right|thumb|280px|Taxis in Mexico City There are plenty of lime-green colored taxi cabs, which, while occasionally unsafe if taken randomly from the street instead of designated locals, are undeniably economical. The freeway system is so dense that there has been an ongoing project to make a second level to the main freeway that is to this day already partionally operational. Mexico City is served by Benito Juárez International Airport (IATA Airport Code: MEX). It has four major bus stations (North, South, Observatorio, TAPO), with bus service to cities across the country, and one train station, used for commercial purposes (intercity passenger trains are now virtually non-existent in Mexico). There is also has several toll expressways which connect it with several other major cities. Unfortunately, the city does not have an expressway network that connects points ''within'' the city; all cross-city trips must be done on arterial roads. This is one reason why the city's streets are so congested. === Urban Problems === As one of the largest urban areas in the world, Mexico City suffers from no shortage of the problems common of many large cities, including traffic, poverty, and pollution. This is perhaps exacerbated by Mexico's developing country status. This city has a high number of street child|street children. The mountains and volcanoes surrounding the city trap polluted air in the city and contribute to the city's serious problem with pollution|poor air quality, although major strides have been made to improve the pollution situation in the past 21 years or so. Violent crime is also a major concern; in 2003 Mexico had the second-highest number of kidnappings in the world, with some 3,000 reported cases. Visitors are advised to avoid attracting attention to themselves while strolling through streets around the Zócalo and other downtown areas, as people (particularly tourists) are targeted by the many pickpocketers, robbers and kidnappers that roam the area. Avoiding the metro at night, using taxis from established locales (hotels and such) and carrying neither large amounts of money nor jewelry in the downtown area also help. These problems are especially prevalent within the public transportation system. In taxis a particular problem has arisen; individuals are sometimes kidnapped by unauthorized taxi drivers, in order to empty their bank accounts at ATMs. Victims are sometimes kept overnight in order to bypass daily withdrawal limits. Inside other transportation, mostly microbuses, pickpocketing is still a common activity, and Mexico City inhabitants take various levels of precaution to avoid being victims of this. The astonishing kidnapping figures are mostly accounted for by cases of middle-class individuals who, driving around in new cars or wearing expensive outfits, give the impression of possessing large amounts of money, and are abducted (some times for several days) in order to empty their bank acounts. This being said, the information concerning the crime rates of Mexico City is widely accepted to be exaggerated, mostly for political reasons. While still a very insecure place, one can visit and live a perfectly normal life without being ever victim of crime. It is a generalized theory among Mexican political analysts, that insecurity, not only in Mexico City, is rooted in great class-differences that continue to grow. While some middle-class individuals eventually rise to a wealthy situation, most people's income is continually decreasing, giving the average Mexican the feeling that money is taken away from them so that a few individuals can buy expensive automobiles. This, based partially on reality, is a problem not only deriving from the economic system, but also from the social values which encourage wealthy individuals to display their status through posessions, rather than invest their money in job-creating business. Police reform has also been a focus of the government for the past decade; there is a general sense of distrust against the authorities, as conventional wisdom holds that all Mexico's police forces are corrupt one way or another. This issue came to a head in November 2004, when an angry crowd in Tláhuac allowed themselves to be whipped up into a frenzy by the local criminal elements and burned two undercover police officers alive [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4038173.stm] and seriously injured another, on rumors that they were child kidnappers. == Politics == Image:ANGEL_OF_INDEPENDENCE.JPG|thumb|left|260px|The Angel of Independence monument in the heart of Mexico City Due to its special situation as the home of the federal government of Mexico, the local government of Mexico City has gone through several incarnations. Since Mexico's independence, the city has sometimes had an independent local government and other times (the greater part of the 20th century) has been administered directly by the President of the Republic, who delegated his authority to a "Head of the Federal District Department", known more tersely as the ''Regente'' ("Regent" in English). This kind of political organization caused much resentment among the inhabitants of the city because for many years they were deprived of a government that properly represented them. The most serious situation arose in 1988 when people from Mexico City clearly voted for opposition candidates, despite which they were ruled for six years by the party that won the federal presidency. Under these circumstances, political reform became inevitable. First a local legislative assembly was established, and people were able to elect their mayor (''jefe de gobierno'' or "Head of Government of the Federal District|Head of Government") for the first time (both institutions still had limited powers dependent on the federal congress and president). The first elected head of government was Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a former presidential candidate (who was, according to many, cheated out of victory in the closely fought 1988 presidential election). Cárdenas resigned later to compete in the 2000 presidential campaign and left in his place Rosario Robles, who became the first woman to govern Mexico City. A measure of the democratic development in Mexico City is that the current (2000-06) chief of government in the Federal District is Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática|PRD, which has a left-leaning ideology (and even has some former members of the Communist Party among its numbers), while at the same time the federal government has a conservative president. López Obrador was taken out of his duty as Head of Government of the Federal District|Head of Government in the Federal District on April 7, 2005. With 360 votes (489 total) from the legislative assembly, he was removed because he didn't follow a judge's order to stop a road from being built.It is called populary as "desafuero". This issue has created a lot of problems in Mexico City since he has been called a populist leader and wants to run as a presidential candidate in the federal elections on July 2006.Vicente Fox, the mexican president stopped the movement that, himself, his wife and the parties PAN and PRI, started against the Head of Government of the Federal District|Head of Government in late april. ==Nickname== Mexico City was traditionally known as ''la Ciudad de los Palacios'' ("the City of Palaces"). Since first winning power in 1997, however, the democratically elected local administrations of the PRD have introduced a new nickname: ''la Ciudad de la Esperanza'', or "The City of Hope". Acceptance or rejection of this new sobriquet is largely determined by one's political preferences. Mexico City is also widely known as ''Chilangolandia'' ("Chilangoland"), derived from Chilango|''chilango'', an informal demonym for the city's inhabitants. In the northwest of Mexico, where ''chilangos'' are known as ''guachos'', the variant ''Guáchington, D.F.'' is also heard. === Districts === Mexico City is divided into 16 boroughs called ''delegaciones'', which are further divided into ''colonias'' or neighborhoods. The ''delegaciones'' are: * Álvaro Obregón, D.F.|Delegación Álvaro Obregón * Azcapotzalco|Delegación Azcapotzalco * Benito Juárez, D.F.|Delegación Benito Juárez * Coyoacán|Delegación Coyoacán * Cuajimalpa|Delegación Cuajimalpa * Cuauhtémoc, D.F.|Delegación Cuauhtémoc * Gustavo A. Madero, D.F.|Delegación Gustavo A. Madero * Iztacalco|Delegación Iztacalco * Iztapalapa|Delegación Iztapalapa * Magdalena Contreras|Delegación Magdalena Contreras * Miguel Hidalgo, D.F.|Delegación Miguel Hidalgo * Milpa Alta|Delegación Milpa Alta * Tláhuac|Delegación Tláhuac * Tlalpan|Delegación Tlalpan * Venustiano Carranza, D.F.|Delegación Venustiano Carranza * Xochimilco|Delegación Xochimilco List_of_Boroughs_of_the_Mexican_Federal_District == External links == *[http://www.df.gob.mx Federal District Government] (in Spanish) *[http://www.chilangolandia.com Chilangolandia] – Informal guide to restaurants, bars and nightclubs (in Spanish) *[http://www.wikitravel.org/article/Mexico_City Mexico City] – From Wikitravel, the free travel guide *[http://urbanrail.net/am/mexi/mexico.htm El Metro de la Ciudad de México] – Mexico City Metro * [http://www.demographia.com/db-mxcward.htm Mexico City delegacions] Category:Cities in Mexico Category:Metropolitan areas Category:Capitals in North America Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Mexico City|* bg:Мексико (град) ca:Ciutat de Mèxic da:Mexico City de:Mexiko-Stadt et:México es:Ciudad de México eo:Meksikurbo fr:Mexico ko:멕시코 시 io:Mexiko it:Città del Messico he:מקסיקו סיטי la:Mexicopolis nl:Mexico-stad ja:メキシコシティ no:Mexico by pl:Meksyk (miasto) pt:Cidade do México ro:Mexico sk:Mexiko (mesto) fi:México sv:Mexico City zh:墨西哥城 ru:Мехико First page | Prev | Next | Last page | This article on Mexico City is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. 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