shocking anniversary

Every earthquake in Mex City ellicits articles like this: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-mexico-citys-unique-geology-makes-earthquakes-even-worse-180964972/

The natural question is: why do people still live there?

Well, after 1985 a lot of people moved out, especially businesses. Property prices in the western parts of town rose sky-high. But as another major earthquake failed to materialize, and property values downtown went down, people moved in there. and so it goes.

I wonder if the area could be de-urbanized. Not all at once, but gradually. It would cost a lot, but it would also ease many chronic Mex city problems other than earthquakes.

Quote: Nareed

...The natural question is: why do people still live there?...

I think the same question could be asked of the Caribbean islands, and the mid-westerner's living in "Tornado Alley". At least earthquakes don't have "seasons". Most folks think they are going to be okay, or that the government will help them if something bad happens.

Los Angeles is also in a basin similar to Mexico City. Recent news reports have mentioned that the magnification of movement from liquifaction in Los Angeles is a factor of 5, while Mexico City gets a 100x bump. Crazy.

Didn't the Aztecs just abandon entire population centers? Maybe the same thing needs to be done now. At minimum, schools need to be overbuilt to withstand collapse. What a tragedy at the Enrique Rebsamen elementary school.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I think the same question could be asked of the Caribbean islands, .

The answer seems more obvious for some places. Some have plenty of natural beauty.

That's also why people have beautiful homes in forests subject to wildfire.

Some places only make sense if you're too poor to move, like a Mississippi flood plain. I mean, if you're not even by the river just in low lying area nearby.

Other causes, got a job, got a home, got kid in school with friends there,

...and just plain INERTIA.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Didn't the Aztecs just abandon entire population centers? Maybe the same thing needs to be done now. At minimum, schools need to be overbuilt to withstand collapse. What a tragedy at the Enrique Rebsamen elementary school.

Aztecs are a people noted particularly from the year 1325 Tenochtitlan was built (an island in Lake Texcoco ). Most of that island was drained and forms the downtown area of Mexico City.

Aztecs are not known to have abandoned population centers, but certainly the civilizations who flourished prior to the Aztecs abandoned some massive population centers. Among them the Mayan Empire, the Toltec Empire, the Olmec Empire.

Teotihuacan is located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, (25 mi) northeast of modern-day Mexico City. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more,making it at least the sixth largest city in the world during its epoch. It had been abandoned for almost 1000 years when the Spaniards arrived.

The oldest existing metropolis in the Americas is called Montalbán based on the name of the Alban Hills of Italy. The ancient Zapotec name of the city is not known, as abandonment occurred centuries before the writing of the earliest available ethnohistorical sources.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I think the same question could be asked of the Caribbean islands, and the mid-westerner's living in "Tornado Alley". At least earthquakes don't have "seasons"

The Federal District has 16.8% of the countries GDP, while it has 7.9% of the population. So the Federal District has twice the GDP per capita of the country.

Nuevo León with capital city, Monterrey near Texas is the second wealthiest state in Mexico.

Certainly Mexico (like many other countries) has tried to diversify the economy so that it is not all concentrated in one portion of the country, but programs like that have very limited success. The USA and Canada are relatively unique in that the wealth is spread throughout the country.

"shaking anniversary" seems more appropriate.
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Quote: Ayecarumba

I think the same question could be asked of the Caribbean islands, and the mid-westerner's living in "Tornado Alley". At least earthquakes don't have "seasons".

Good question.

Quote:

Didn't the Aztecs just abandon entire population centers?

I believe that was the Maya. They lived in what is now Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala mostly, which is also a frequent target of hurricanes.

The Aztec capital was Tenochtitlan, a large island in Texcoco Lake. The Spaniards drained the lake and the Mexico City grew there.

Quote: Pacomartin

The Federal District

"The Federal District" was officially renamed "Ciudad de México" last year.

Given everyone was used to abbreviating the old name as DF, the new one is now CDMX.

Quote: Nareed

"The Federal District" was officially renamed "Ciudad de México" last year.

First, glad to hear you survived the earthquake. I've been out of town but heard about it.

How will this name change affect the license plates? Will they give out new ones to replace the Districto Federal ones to everyone with them or just phase them in as people require them?

Quote: Wizard

Will they give out new ones to replace the Districto Federal ones to everyone with them or just phase them in as people require them?

New plates with the 'CDMX' logo started appearing in July of 2016.

I can't imagine that all the old plates will be recalled en masse. Government doesn't work that way normally.

Quote:

Mexicans Outraged After Praying For Fake 'Trapped Child'

Quote:

The country watched Televisa’s live-stream through the night, wide-eyed and praying that a 12-year-old girl named Frida Sofia would be pulled from the rubble of the Rebsamen elementary school in Mexico City, destroyed during Tuesday’s earthquake.
For more than a day and a half Mexico followed the rescue effort of Frida Sofia, allegedly weakly clinging to life.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/mexicans-outraged-after-praying-for-fake-trapped-child