It is heartening to hear of private citizens initiating green projects, not depending on government initiatives, to improve the quality of life for citizens of a highly polluted city.
An architect, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio of the firm “Verde Vertical,” initiated this greening project, which was co-signed by the Mexican government in July of 2016.
Monasterio intended to build vertical gardens throughout nearly 1,000 pillars along the highly transited highway called “Periferico.” A group of eligible corporations invested the 300 million pesos (US$15.1 million) needed.
It would seem that an iconic highway with bumper-to-bumper traffic and off-the-charts bad air would be the ideal place to launch an initiative that pairs smog mitigation with beautification—improving air quality and somehow making a concrete highway infrastructure more aesthetically appealing. But not everyone agreed.
“We could just plant trees, but there’s a political fear of limiting the space in the city that is currently devoted to cars.”
The Liga Peatonal, a non-governmental pedestrian advocacy group, said that the project has failed to live up to its environmental promises.
“The idea of turning a gray city green feels good to its inhabitants. But in reality it’s just aesthetics.
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change the city,” Ochoa added.
Additionally, only a few species have the capacity to purify the air in the way that the Via Verde petition indicated, and the succulents as well as other plants that Verde Vertical favors for their low maintenance needs are not among them.
Through a drip-irrigation system and using rain, Via Verde plans to make the vertical gardens last a long time. The project also brings color to the city and tackles the growing green-area deficit.
Despite living in a “very gray” Mexico City that local folk have been accustomed to, Monasterio likened the feelings of seeing green vertical gardens, in an urban landscape, as a breath of fresh air.
