Mexican voters do not want the airport project to continue, and serious economic consequences could follow.
Seventy percent of 1.07 million people voted on a referendum against a project to replace Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport with a new airport, even though a third of the $13 billion project is completed. President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, set to take office on December 1, vowed to kill the project as part of his anti-corruption platform.
The decision to halt the project led to a drop in the peso, and financial observers are concerned that the move will lead to a rise in inflation and more pressure on an already slow economy.
However, Lopez Obrador did not express similar worries about stopping the project, which he said wasted taxpayer dollars and was plagued by corruption. His administration plans to pursue a proposal to upgrade the airport and another in Toluca, to the east, along with the addition of two runways to a military airport.
FULL STORY: Mexico's AMLO Scraps $13 Billion Airport Project; Peso Plunges
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An iconic multifamily housing form repurposes the former homes of Mexico's elite into communal housing for urban workers.
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Mexico City Coalition Dreams of Restoring Rivers
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
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Congress Moves to End Reconnecting Communities and Related Grants
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved to rescind funding for the Neighborhood Equity and Access program, which funds highway removals, freeway caps, transit projects, pedestrian infrastructure, and more.
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