Quake Threatens to Cause Flight From Mexico City’s Hip Neighborhoods<br />While Mexico City’s older central districts are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because they sit on the soft ground of a residual lake bed, Roma<br />and Condesa are no more at risk than other central neighborhoods, said Gerardo Suárez, a senior researcher in the Seismology Department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.<br />Some of the biggest fans of Roma and Condesa worry<br />that the Tuesday earthquake, which killed at least 286 people in Mexico, could slow if not reverse the ascendant popularity of the neighborhoods.<br />I no longer want to live here anymore." Even Mr. Aizenman, who still lives in Condesa<br />and has his offices there, is weighing the relative merits of different neighborhoods in light of the earthquake.<br />Mr. Bustos said that Many residents feel a big distrust because it’s evident that it’s not a safe place to live,<br />"Despite how much we love this area, it’s not secure." Roma<br />and Condesa, neighboring bastions of Mexican stylishness, are once again in an existential crisis, and residents are pondering whether living in them is worth the risk.<br />The Roma and Condesa neighborhoods – sidewalk cafes, hip restaurants, thriving art and music, storied architecture – had captured his imagination.
