‘I will stay here’: public space and social inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The implementation of city lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic exposed some social inequalities in Mexico. The paper evaluates the effects of the closure of the Alameda Central, a public park in the Historic Centre of Mexico City. It examines how its closure affected some vulnerable populations, including homeless people, beggars, street vendors, buskers, and male sex workers, to the extent that they resisted leaving or found ways to return to public space. The research shows how Mexican COVID-19 policies tended to overlook the diversity of populations making use of public space, and their various necessities.

KEYWORDS:

• Public space
• social inequality
• COVID-19
• city lockdown
• Alameda Central
• Historic Centre of Mexico City

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Ann Varley, Paulo Drinot, Michael Short, Pablo Sendra, Luz Frías and the UCL Urban Design Research Group (UDRG) for their comments and suggestions on different stages of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Interview with a beggar in the Alameda, 06/04/2020.

2. Interview with a homeless person, 06/04/2020.

3. Interview with an old gay person, 07/04/2020.

4. The term Alameda derives from álamos [poplar trees]. The alamedas were originally planned across Spain and Latin America.

5. By late April 2023, Mexican official data reported 7.57 million positive cases of COVID-19, including 333,766 deaths in Mexico. In Mexico City, 1.88 million confirmed cases and 44,140 deaths were reported (Gobierno de México 2020a).

6. All interviews were conducted in Spanish and translated into English. All participants’ names were anonymized and/or changed to protect personal data.

7. CCTV cameras are streaming online 24 hours. However, the streaming is not recorded for later consultation. Available at https://www.webcamsdemexico.com/webcam-mexico-latinoamericana-oeste (last accessed 19/04/2023).

8. Interview with a street sweeper, 06/042020.

9. There are six shelters in alcaldía Cuauhtémoc. Available at www.proteccioncivil.cdmx.gob.mx/comunicacion/nota/listado-de-albergues-cdmx (accessed 21/01/2023).

10. Interview with a homeless person, 05/04/2020.

11. Interview with a senior-level city authority, 04/12/2019.

12. Interview with a young artist, 14/12/2019.

13. Interview with a street vendor, 08/01/2023.

14. Some street vendors benefited from cash transfer programmes that offered from $10,000 to 50,000 Mexican pesos (£445 to 2,225 approx.). Available at https://informedegobierno.cdmx.gob.mx/acciones/apoyos-economicos-a-la-poblacion/ (accessed 25/04/2023).

15. Interview with an elderly gay person, 05/01/2020.

16. Interview with a senior-level city authority, 04/12/2019.

17. Article 27 of the Ley de Cultura Cívica [Law of Civic Culture] in Section XII [last modification 07/06/2019] established that the authorities can proceed against prostitution only if the practice disturbs a third person who must report it to the authorities.

18. Interview with a male sex worker, 04/01/2023.

19. Interview with two gay men, 05/01/2023.

20. For the length of this article, the analysis of other observations was not included.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the UCL Cross-Disciplinary Research Training award 2021 and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT Mexico) award number 474519 (2018–2021).