CHAPTER 03 | MISMATCHED LEON
Governance and Urban Policies. In the last decade, research on poverty and territorial distribution in Leon was conducted. As a result, there was the identification of regions in the periphery of the city where the index of poverty was higher than the average throughout the rest of the city. These areas had in common the lack of basic urban infrastructure, seven of these poverty polygons were identified, (Guzmán Ramírez & Frausto Vargas, 2012) and government agencies presented work plans and masterplans proposals for those areas. In 2012 IMPLAN presented a masterplan to develop 52 linear parks along neglected streams located in poverty polygons in the city, which were also found to be the ones with less PS in relation to the inhabitants, and which would encourage pedestrian and cycling activity. Six of these potential linear parks are located within the polygon of San Francisco (IMPLAN, 2012). And in 2018 the same institution published their portfolio of projects to be executed from 2018 to 2021 where it is included a master plan to develop more PS in deprived areas including San Francisco, one of the areas investigated in this research. Nevertheless, no more information has been published about this project (IMPLAN, 2018).
FIG 20. Poverty in Urban Areas in Leon (IMPLAN, 2020).
In 2018 the city council developed the Manual of Preservation and Refurbishment of Public Spaces (Dirección General de Obra Pública, 2018) for the period of 2018-2021 as an action plan to address some of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN, more specifically the 11th goal: ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’. The document has the purpose of communicating pragmatic strategies that the municipality will implement to improve the physical state of the existing PS, prioritizing those in poverty polygons as a way of tackling social disparities and ensuring a better environment to these communities. DIY PUBLIC SPACES: Self- production of Public Space in Leon, Mexico.
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