Mexico City's Centro Historico, the old urban heart of the capital, has seen a significant decrease in measured noise levels since the local government managed to relocate the "informal" street vendors that for years choked the stone streets and sidewalks. At the same time, noise levels have risen in the areas where the ambulantes were moved, the streets surrounding designated in-door shopping markets mostly on the eastern side of the Centro, reports El Universal in today's edition.
The paper adds a sceney sidebar about how dramatically life has changed for merchants and residents in Centro since the ambulantes left. People who live and work in Centro seem uniformly awed by how open and practically new the area looks and feels. But are the ambulantes better off?
* Pictured above, a D.F. gent on a Sunday afternoon outside the National Museum of Art, one of my very favorite in the city. The vendors in the rear were part of a temporary food and crafts fair.