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awcharro

Jan 8, 2003, 9:13 PM

Post #1 of 3 (2987 views)

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Tips on how to choose where you want to live in a city in Mexico

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After living eight and a half years in Mexico, I discovered that you don't have to live in a place with noisy neighbors who do not respect their neighbors.

The advise I have received from Mexicans both here in Aguascalientes and in Monterrey, where I used to live, is not to live in a "colonia popular", if you can help it. They told me that it is much better to live in a "colonia residencial". Although this may sound snobbish to some, a "colonia popular" is a working class neighborhood where you are much more likely to live close to people who like to turn up their speakers at full volume so that the whole colonia can hear them. These types of people have little or no respect for their neighbors. A "colonia residencial" is a neighborhood where "profesionalistas" live and tends to be much quieter. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules. However, this is not only based on my own experience but on the experience of the many Mexicans who have told me this as well.

Personally, I do not think that a construction worker is any less than a doctor or a lawyer. It's just that I want to avoid living in a noisy neighborhood where some people have absolutely no respect for their neighbors. Although a "colonia residencial" is more expensive to live in than a "colonia popular", in my opinion, if you want a peaceful neighborhood, it is well worth it!

When I lived in a "colonia popular" in Monterrey, I was paying close to $100 U.S. in rent for a large unfurnished one bedroom apartment. Here in Aguascalientes, I am paying about $290 U.S. a month for a large two bedroom apartment that has built-in closets in both bedrooms, some cabinets in the kitchen, and a small water heater. It is also in a very established "colonia residencial" and has a very beautiful view. In this colonia (or fraccionamiento, as they are called in most of Aguascalientes), there is grass instead of bare dirt, flowers, trees, and people do not throw trash all over the place. There are trash recepticals every two or three blocks to put trash in. The trash pick-up trucks come by twice a week here.

Another tip is to realize that what you see is what you are going to get when renting. Some people have been burned by expecting the landlord to fix the place up, and he never did. In other words, if you like what you see and you think it is worth the price (and it is in a good neighborhood) then, by all means, rent it. If you don't like what you see but you think you can convince the landlord to fix it up to where you will like it, forget it! (He may agree to fix it up but that doesn't mean that he will do it, even if it's in writing!) If you are a handyman, you could fix it up yourself, but you probably wouldn't want to invest too much time and money in fixing up a place that you are not buying.

I hope that these tips will help some folks!

(This post was edited by awcharro on Jan 8, 2003, 9:15 PM)

capt_canada

Jan 11, 2003, 5:22 PM

Post #2 of 3 (2708 views)

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Re: [awcharro] Tips on how to choose where you want to live in a city in Mexico

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I lived for a number of months in Puerto Vallarta in a area that might be termed a colonia popular. There was the occasional loud song, mine included. There were many loud trucks in the morning and the occasional person drinking beer at my garage door entrance at 7am. My point is that I had a very nice apartment with a garage on a nice street and I found all the neighbors were working class and very respectful of each other including the only gringo on the street. By 1000 pm and usually without exception the street noise died down and everybody went to sleep. I don't think just because it's a working class neighborhood that people are any less respectful. At least where I lived everybody got to know a little about each other and usually everybody sat outside of their house at night time and had a good neighborly time.

awcharro

Jan 11, 2003, 8:18 PM

Post #3 of 3 (2676 views)

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Re: [capt_canada] Tips on how to choose where you want to live in a city in Mexico

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Yes, as I mentioned in my previous post, there are exceptions to these rules.

In the INFONAVIT I lived in in Monterrey, some of my neighbors in back of me were relatively quiet, until they built a room on top of their house and a young man moved in who played loud music about 12 hours a day. Yes, he did turn it off generally at about 11 o'clock at night, but the rest of the time it was usually so loud that I could hardly think. This is the danger of living in a "colonia popular". You could have some peaceful neighbors, then all of a sudden someone moves in the neighborhood who has no respect for his neighbors at all and the neighbors are afraid to say anything to him. This is why every Mexican I have talked to about this subject (and I have talked to quite a few about it) has advised me not to live in a "colonia popular", if I want to live in a peaceful neighborhood.

(This post was edited by awcharro on Jan 11, 2003, 8:22 PM)