Visits
A third of the budget that was used for the preservation of these urban spaces was allocated during 2025
Omar Montalvo
Mexico City. – Since the end of 2024, the capital government announced that in 2025 the first 16 Utopias would be built, one for each mayor’s office. However, the message only advanced to works in 11 districts, while the precedent of the 12 Utopias in the mayor’s office Iztapalapa It seems to have been forgotten. This is because of the budget that the government of the demarcation allocated for the maintenance of the Utopias, now only a third was allocated, due to a transfer of responsibilities with the Secretariat of Welfare and Social Equality of Mexico City (Sebien).
The Sebien that is in charge of Araceli Damián, via transparency indicated that “the Finance Directorate attached to the General Directorate of Administration and Finance, indicated that for the fiscal year 2025, an amount of 9 million pesos has been assigned for general maintenance work. Said budget corresponds to the general maintenance of properties managed by this Secretariat, without there being a specific breakdown by unit (Utopia) or by type of service.”
This amount is almost a third of the 30 million 819 thousand 245 pesos that the Iztapalapa mayor’s office allocated in 2024 for the maintenance of all the Utopias.
Because these properties were characteristic of the previous administration of Iztapalapaduring the last year Utopías users have complained to the current mayoral government headed by Aleida Alavez, a lack of maintenance. However, the change of administration in the Utopias was announced on September 30, 2024 through the Official Gazette of Mexico City (GO CDMX). This was an agreement by the capital government to include the Utopias in the Public Care System at the city level.
Although Sebien does not specify the budget allocated to each Utopia in Iztapalapathe average of 9 million pesos between the 12 properties indicates that each unit would receive 750 thousand pesos. According to the records of the Iztapalapa mayor’s office, in 2024 the 12 Utopias were ready with a maintenance budget that ranged from 1.1 to 5.8 million pesos.
In the different Utopias, 2 million 245 thousand pesos were allocated to El Barco; 1 million 479 thousand pesos to Cuauhtlicalli Aculco; 1 million 727 thousand pesos to Papalotl; 4 million 59 thousand pesos to Meyehualco; 5 million 886 thousand pesos to La Cascada Xicoténcatl; 1 million 579 thousand pesos to Atzintli; 3 million 109 thousand pesos to Tezontle; 1 million 745 thousand pesos to Quetzalcóatl; 2 million 562 thousand pesos to Libertad; 2 million 791 thousand pesos to Olini; 1 million 191 thousand pesos to Tecoloxtitlán; and to the Teotongo unit 2 million 258 thousand pesos.
This 2025 with the administration changes, some Utopías such as El Barco have operated regularly because it is also a forum that receives concerts, but other spaces such as Utopía Teotongo, which has a plane transformed into a library and an outdoor forum, has received complaints from users for its abandonment; similar with Utopia Olini as in its disused geodesic tents and periods without activity on the ice rink.