City Mayors

The Crane

Marcelo Ebrard, Mayor of Mexico City
awarded the 2010 World Mayor Prize

(Marcelo Ebrard, el mejor alcalde del mundo: City Mayors)

7 December 2010: Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, Head of the Federal District Government of Mexico City, has been awarded the 2010 World Mayor Prize. The mayor is a liberal reformer and pragmatist who has never shied away from challenging Mexico’s orthodoxy. He has championed women’s and minorities rights and has become an outspoken and internationally respected advocate on environmental issues.

City Mayors: What is the most recent satisfaction you have derived from the City?
Marcelo Ebrard: The greatness of the people of Mexico City recently manifested itself during the swine flu crisis, which, as the world knows, began on a large scale in our city in 2009. This was such an enormous crisis - a vast and terrible problem with an unknown virus. It was lethal. I basically asked all citizens to stop all activities for almost two weeks. We shut down everything, from schools to theatres. And they did so. We didn’t have to use force, which shows the civic awareness and responsibility of the people of Mexico City.

City Mayors: What can other cities in the world learn from Mexico City’s experience?
Marcelo Ebrard: We all learn from one another. I prefer to use the term “exchange”. I would say that out biggest advantage is Crisis Management, the high degree of vulnerability that we have has given us a certain culture, or way of confronting these crises, in an unusual and remarkable way. This is something rare in cities of this size. On the climate change action plan, some cities have asked me for a copy. On how we are preparing for the green economy, well, some mayors seem to look to our social policy, as well as to the initiatives we have taken on urban mobility and public spaces. These are the topics that other mayors ask me questions and seek information about. Mayors must act in concert. Together, we can take a more active role on global issues. Our cities are the sources of wealth, but also of pollution. Environmental matters are common areas of exchange, since we are all linked in the same dire destiny unless we soon enhance our cooperation and our actions.  (You can see his interview here)

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The Lake

Chapultepec Park

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Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. Established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmecs, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago. It is also a municipality located about 85 km (53 mi) south of Mexico City on the D-95 freeway.

The city was nicknamed the "City of Eternal Spring" by Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century. It has long been a favorite escape for Mexico City and foreign visitors because of this warm, stable climate and abundant vegetation. Aztec emperors had summer residences there, and even today many famous people as well as Mexico City residents maintain homes there. Cuernavaca is also host to a large foreign resident population, including large numbers of students who come to study the Spanish language.

The name "Cuernavaca" is derived from the Nahuatl phrase Cuauhnahuac, and means "surrounded by or close to trees." The name was eventually Hispanicized to Cuernavaca because the Spanish could not pronounce the Nahuatl name. The coat-of-arms of the municipality consists of a tree trunk with three branches with foliage, and four roots colored red. There is a cut in the trunk in the form of a mouth, from which emerges a grey swirl.

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The Mile

Chapultepec Park jogging path. 

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Time (Theme Day)

Bregenz Railway Station. Austria

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking

And racing around to come up behind you again

The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way

The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

And when I come home cold and tired

Its good to warm my bones beside the fire

Far away across the field

The tolling of the iron bell

Calls the faithful to their knees

To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

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