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By Jonathan Clark PART ONE IN A THREE-PART SERIES: This story was originally published in the Mexico edition of The Miami Herald on March 29, 2005. At first glance, Carlos Slim and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would not appear to have a lot in common. Slim is Mexico's most accomplished capitalist, and according to a new Forbes magazine poll, the fourth-richest man in the world. When he's not making money, the telecom magnate likes collecting fine European paintings and sculptures by the French artist Rodin. Mexico City's leftist Mayor Lopez Obrador, on the other hand, drives a Nissan sedan, lives in a modest apartment in a working-class neighborhood, and peppers his speech with folksy sayings from his native Tabasco state. His high-profile anti-poverty programs have made him a hero to Mexico's poor and working classes, and he has vaulted to the lead in preference polls for presidential elections in 2006. Meanwhile, his liberal public spending and advocacy for state involvement in the energy and industry sectors have made him a demon to conservatives who fear that a President Lopez Obrador would scale back 10 years of free-market reform. Yet despite their differences, Slim and Lopez Obrador have managed to discover at least one piece of common ground: the Historic Center of Mexico City. The nearly 700-year-old Historic Center is the cradle of Mexican civilization. Before the arrival of the Spanish, it was the site of the great Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. It was here that Cortes met Moctezuma and contemporary Mexican history was born. But beginning in the 1950s, the center entered a period of decline. First the national university moved out, taking its students and jobs with it. Then, in September of 1985, two devastating earthquakes leveled many of the area's older buildings and left countless others severely damaged. By the late 1990s, the area had lost a third of its inhabitants. Services suffered and poverty and crime rose. "It was an abandoned area; the people who lived here were leaving," said Ana Lilia Cepeda, director of the city's Historic Center Commission. "And people weren't coming to the center anymore because it was no longer a safe place to be." Then in 2001, shortly after the election of Lopez Obrador as Mexico City mayor, a rare convergence occurred. The city and Slim, along with the federal government, agreed to launch a cooperative large-scale effort to restore and redevelop the Historic Center. For the leftist city government, the opportunity to work with Mexico's richest man had a clear benefit. "We invited investors like Carlos Slim because they give a level of confidence and security to the project," Cepeda said. "'Leftist' is the image that has been created of the city government, and obviously, it is a government that has as its priority the fight against poverty," she said. "But this is also a government that is well aware of the importance of investment." For Slim, the decision to join the renovation effort was motivated by personal interest as much as financial gain. "Slim has always loved the Historic Center," said Adrian Pandal, director of Slim's Historic Center Foundation. "After all, it's where he grew up. "The restoration project is something that he really believes in and it's also something that he wants to do for the city and for the country," Pandal said. "And I think it's also a way of leaving behind a legacy." THE RECOVERY EFFORT Legacy is something that has been on Slim's mind of late. "You cannot wait until you die to leave a legacy," the 65-year-old said in a rare interview last year with Newsweek. "You must do as much as you can while you're alive." And so taking advantage of a government-sponsored tax initiative package created as part of the restoration project, Slim began buying up properties in the center and filling them with his retail businesses. He also moved much of his non-retail business to the center - most notably call centers for his Telefonos de Mexico. In total, Slim's businesses claim to have created over 5,000 new jobs in the area. "Call centers are very good because they hire a lot of people, and especially young people," Pandal said. And with many of those new hires looking for housing in the area, Slim began renovating buildings in the center into stylish apartments, aimed primarily at young professionals, artists and students. Slim's foundation now rents more than 600 apartment units in the center. To attend to quality-of-life issues for both new and holdover residents of the area, Slim's nonprofit Historic Center Foundation provides services ranging from scholarships, medical and psychological treatment, family counseling, and microcredit programs. Meanwhile, the Lopez Obrador government launched a public works overhaul, replacing 100-year-old water lines, burying unsightly power cables, repaving streets with cobblestones, painting building facades and installing old-fashioned street lights. Focusing its housing efforts on the people who were already living in the center, the city launched a program that temporarily relocates residents from dilapidated buildings while the structures are renovated. When the renovation is done, it moves the same tenants back into their original dwellings. In an effort to bring visitors back to the center, both the city and Slim have sponsored cultural events, such as street festivals, art exhibitions and free concerts in the Zocalo central square. And the two entities have also joined forces to tackle one of the biggest problems that had confronted the area: crime. NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH Combining the manpower of the municipal police force with technology donated by Slim, the city opened a Puesto de Mando, or command post, in the Historic Center. Here, civilian employees monitor digital video streaming from more than 100 cameras mounted around the center and report suspicious activity to police dispatchers. The city has also sought to put more, better-trained officers on the streets and created a squad of 80 horseback officers decked out in charro cowboy garb to patrol the Alameda Park. "We want this to be the safest place in Mexico City," Pandal said. "And it's happening." Statistics from the city show a 40-percent drop in crime in the center from 2003 to 2004. Those involved in the restoration effort say the results of the restoration effort have been dramatic. "Sunday used to be a day when it was dead in the center," said Jaqueline Beristain, spokeswoman at the Puesto de Mando. "But now, you see more and more people coming to shop, to eat, or to enjoy cultural events. Our statistics show that as many as three million people come to the center now on a typical weekend." According to Carlos Mackinlay, director of tourism promotion for Mexico City, the renovation project has also helped attract visitors from outside the capital. He points to statistics showing that from 2003 to 2004, national tourism increased 14 percent in the capital, and while he says that it is difficult to known exactly how much of that increase can be attributed to the Historic Center, he cites several indicators. "We can see the number of new hotels that are being built in the area, as well as existing hotels that are being renovated to meet a growing demand," Mackinlay said. "We see new efforts like the Turibus (an open-air, doubledecker tour bus) that serves tourists in the center, and we see more restaurants opening and staying open longer hours." And, Mackinlay says, the renovated center has changed the way his office markets tourism in the capital. The Historic Center "has become our banner; it's now the focus of our efforts to bring tourists into the city," he said. THE FOX FACTOR In addition to the municipal government of Lopez Obrador and the private initiative led by Slim, there has been another significant player in the renovation project: the federal government of President Vicente Fox. The Fox government is providing tax incentives for businesses that relocate to the Historic Center, and it is constructing a new complex on the south side of the Alameda Park to serve as the new home for the Foreign Relations Secretariat. If the partnership between Slim and Lopez Obrador seems surprising, the fact that Fox and the mayor are working together on the project is even more so. The conservative president and leftist mayor are bitter political enemies, with the mayor alleging that Fox is behind a legal effort to remove him from office and derail his presidential ambitions. Fox accuses the mayor of carrying out a "populist" agenda and implementing some of his initiatives in clear disregard of the law. Yet while the feud between Fox and Lopez Obrador has devolved into almost daily exchanges of mudslinging, the federal government has not pulled back on its commitment to the Historic center project. "We are fortunate that this is a project that has not been politicized," said Cepeda, the city official. "Everyone has been participating in good faith to make this very noble effort work." The meaning of the Historic Center itself is a big part of the reason that the unlikely alliance has held together, said Pandal, of Slim's commission. "The Historic Center is a project that everybody wants to see happen," he said. "After all, it's the heart of Mexico. If you ask any wealthy, poor, or middle class Mexican, they all feel deeply attached to the center. It's the identity of our country." PART OF THE 'SLIM TEAM' While Slim may be thinking of his personal legacy in promoting the popular project, Fox and Lopez Obrador have much to gain politically. "At the end of the day, both Lopez Obrador and the president will have something to show from this project," said political analyst Ana Maria Salazar, "and that's important both for Lopez Obrador, who is a likely presidential candidate, and for the president, who is sort of a lame duck at this point." And while the two men will both benefit directly from the rescue of the Historic Center, Salazar says they also gain from working successfully with Slim. This is especially true for Lopez Obrador, she says, who has frightened the business community more than inspired it. "They want to be part of the 'Slim Team,'" she said. "What pushes them to work together is the Slim factor." |