Referendum

Rio de Janeiro Square

In line to vote Marcelo Ebrard, City Mayor until last December. (In 2010, Ebrard was nominated as the "world's best mayor" by the Project World Mayor. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change.)

MEXICO CITY – Every day before dawn, dozens of men appear in the Mexican capital’s hip Condesa and Roma neighborhoods and block off parking spaces along entire streets using water jugs, cardboard boxes, buckets, crates and even blocks of cement.

As visitors start arriving for the district’s restaurants, organic food stores, boutiques and art galleries, the men collect 20 to 40 pesos ($1.50-$3), remove the obstructions and let drivers park.

Here and in other well-to-do areas of traffic-choked Mexico City, authorities are trying to take back the streets by installing parking meters. They say the meters will make the area safer and more orderly, as well as encouraging less driving, which will be a boon for a polluted city with more than 4 million cars.

Residents of Condesa and Roma, a bohemian neighborhoods, decided in a referendum this Sunday whether they want the meters on their streets. 

[The News] Published on Monday, 21 January 2013.

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