With Limits: On Foot Along the Edge of the Megalopolis of the Valley of Mexico journalist Feike de Jong takes the idea of the flâneur to its extreme, wandering the entire perimeter of Mexico City just to get a sense for its staggering size, scope, variety and contradictions. Though de Jong is an outsider (he’s Dutch), he’s more than a tourist: he’s lived in Mexico for nearly twenty years, working as a journalist for both Mexican and international journals.
The website by Estudio Navaja documenting de Jong’s long walk is understated and elegant, and showcases the Quixotic effort with the simple readability of a well-designed print journal. The website is fully bilingual, with all content available in both English and Spanish.
The web journal part of “Limits” is long on observation and short on reflection, which is both its strength and limitation. Mostly, the entries function as a rough draft of urban history, as the stories of residents and the physical features of Mexico City’s perimeter are documented in sometimes meticulous, sometimes cursory detail. But through the assembled stories, the constant evolution and varieties of development of the outer neighborhoods of the city are glimpsed: settlement by squatter communities, social housing supported by the government, and the struggle for recognition and to protect or advance these areas by the residents themselves.
In addition to the posts documenting the walk, there is a collection of essays that offer context and perspective from across the perimeter (and D.F. at large), on topics such as building styles and ecology.
On the whole, Limits is a valuable new resource for anyone with an interest in Mexico City, and the web presentation is clean, well organized and easy to navigate.
