Salvemos Las Lomas Headline Animator

En defensa del patrimonio urbano de la ciudad

Las Lomas de Chapultepec es un fraccionamiento residencial diseñado y desarrollado en los años 20's, sobre las colinas ubicadas al poniente de la ciudad, bajo el concepto urbanistico suburbano americano de la epoca, respetando la orografia y los collados que permiten el drenaje natural y areas de absorcion del agua de lluvia; se le doto con parques, calles amplias y avenidas jardinadas, que siguen las curvas de nivel del terreno, lotes grandes y reglamentaciones para mantener la densidad de construccion baja con mucho jardin, casas abiertas con setos perimetrales bajos en lugar de bardas; se le dotó de varios centros de barrio para alojar comercios y servicios necesarios para los vecinos, a distancias caminables.
Al paso del tiempo, por sus cualidades humanas y urbanisticas intrinsecas, se convirtio en la mejor y mas prestigiada colonia residencial de la ciudad.
A partir de la regencia del Sr. Hank, y como consecuencia del cambio al uso del suelo en las 7 manzanas entre la Fuente de Petroleos y Prado Sur/Prado Norte, autorizado sin consultar a los vecinos y aprovechado por el mismo, inicia el deterioro y la destruccion de la colonia; se construyen edificios de oficinas, que trajeron poblacion flotante, muchos autos y con estos comercio informal y ambulante, los cuidacoches, invasion de las calles con autos estacionados durante todo el dia, y la saturacion del transporte publico.
Simultaneamente, en Bosques de las Lomas, cambian el uso de suelo a los lotes del circuito Ciruelos y Duraznos, autorizando edificios de oficina, con identicas consecuencias. La apertura del puente de Monte Libano a Tecamachalco primero, el de Cofre de Perote después y el llamado Puente Viejo, permitieron la invasion de la colonia por miles de autos de residentes en Tecamachalco, La Herradura, y mas recientemente Interlomas y los desarrollos inmobiliarios en esa zona del estado de Mexico, colonias desarrolladas sin planeacion urbana integral, sin dotarlas con vias de acceso independientes y perimetrales a Lomas de Chapultepec y Cuajimalpa. En el colmo de falta de planeacion, se desarrolla Santa Fe/Bosque de Lilas sin las vias de acceso necesarias, ni servicio de trasporte publico adecuado, y las calles de acceso, existentes desde hace años, no se arreglan para que opere un transporte publico de calidad y asi absorber parte del aforo vehicular que transita entre el sur poniente y Santa Fe/Lilas, sin ingresar a las Lomas, por tal motivo todos los automoviles atraidos a estos desarrollos son obligados a transitar por Paseo de la Reforma, Palmas y Virreyes, Constituyentes/Observatorio desde y hacia el Periferico, unica via para llevarlos al norte hacia Ciudad Satelite o al sur hacia San Jeronimo y Viaducto al oriente.
El problema tiene solución, pero ésta no es ampliar vialidades ni hacer obras que incentiven y faciliten la movilidad en automovil con 1 ocupante, sino en ofrecer transporte publico de calidad que transporta 200 personas por autobus y hacer que quien causa el congestionamiento, el automovilista, pague por ello, en beneficio de los mas.

miércoles, 17 de agosto de 2011

Aprendiendo de Hong Kong» Transit Secrets: Citiwire.net

For Release Friday, August 5, 2011
Citiwire.net

Alex Marshall

There is really no denying that transportation makes money. Just consider the huge shopping malls perched around interstate off-ramps, the office parks positioned close to airports, the skyscrapers next to subway stations.

But transportation itself is usually a money loser. We pour billions of public dollars into highways, airports and transit systems, while others, the home builders, the department store mavens, make the money that comes slows from those public investments.

Hong Kong’s metro system, MTR, has changed this equation, and that is why it’s worth looking at.

If you are ever lucky enough to visit Hong Kong, which is Manhattan-like with its narrow streets lined with high rises, you will see that the MTR’s services are excellent. You may ride the gleaming new high-speed rail line from the new airport that takes you into the new central rail station. Or one of the nine rail and subway lines, including the special train that goes to Disneyland Hong Kong.
 
What’s amazing about the agency that runs these lines, MTR, is that it actually makes money. So much money that it’s listed on the stock exchange, although the government still owns a majority share.

The Hong Kong’s metro system has been in the news in the New York city region because the chief of New York City’s transit agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, shocked the region by announcing his departure to lead Hong Kong’s system for a million-dollar plus annual salary. He left at a particularly bad time, breaking a seven year contract just as the MTA was facing yet another round of funding gaps and necessary cuts.

Given the perennial money-losing nature of most transportation departments, from highways to rail, it bears asking: how does Hong Kong do it?

The answer is that Hong Kong’s MTR doesn’t let private developers be the only ones that perch next to its stations. It builds its homes, offices and stores. In short, MTR acts as a real estate developer and business company, as well as a train operator. It owns, among other things, 12 shopping malls built around its stations. These properties and businesses produce substantial cash, which keep the transit agency as a whole in the black.

Hong Kong’s MTR is unusual in also actually making money from its fares as well. How it can do this relates in part the uniqueness of running trains on an intense few strips of land filled with development. But for our purposes it’s worth looking at its actions as a developer, and that as a model for transportation agencies and departments in this country.

By many standards, MTR is an unusual company.

The MTR only began service in 1979. But once cash was flowing (through development around stations), the government “graduated” MTR to become a private company, still majority owned by government, so that it could raise funding through capital markets and more nimbly enter into joint ventures with private investors.

In 2000, the Hong Kong government converted the public MTRC into the private MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), although the government maintains a majority stake. Shares are traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. WIkipedia reports that MTR also invests in railways in different parts in the world, and has obtained contracts to operate rapid-transit systems in London, Stockholm, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Melbourne.

Could transit and highway departments in the United States ever do something equally innovative? Why shouldn’t a highway department make money on the shopping malls built around its exits? Shouldn’t it at least get a cut?

While it may seem extraordinary to have a transit company operating like a profit-making company, it’s not novel. A century ago private streetcar lines made money more on the homes and shops built around their tracks, on company-owned land, than the nickel fares they received.

While retaining public control of vital infrastructure systems — a crucial point — governments can facilitate new versions of these old arrangements.

Let me be clear here. I don’t want the transit agencies or highway departments to be only concerned with making a profit for their shareholders, which is how private businesses act. I want them to make a profit for the public, so that roads can be maintained well, taxes and fares kept down.

It’s a long way from anywhere in the United States to Hong Kong, but there’s no reason we can’t learn from it.

Alex Marshall’s e-mail address is alexmarshall@alexmarshall.org.

 

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Un sistema de transporte pubico rapido de pasajeros que gana dinero con las tarifas que cobra y gana aun mas dinero como empresario inmobiliarios que aprovecha la plusvalia que genera para construir centros comerciale, vivienda y oficinas en la vecindad de sus estaciones, y con esos ingresos puede ampliar y mejorar los servicios y aun mas , puede ofrecer sus servicios de operacion y construccion de trenes rapidos en el mundo

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