By Ryan Anders Whitney, Eugen Resendiz, and Roberto Ponce-López
In Tlalpan, a borough in southern Mexico City, Tecnológico de Monterrey has spent several years working to make the areas surrounding its campus more walkable and pedestrian-friendly. Efforts have included rehabilitating sidewalks, improving street lighting, and redesigning pedestrian crossings, all aimed at making walking safer and more accessible.
Published in 2025, the study Mapping the actors: Anchor institutions and walkability projects in Southern Mexico City identified 47 actors involved in these efforts — including government agencies, consultants, schools, hospitals, businesses, and local residents. Yet only 18 had an established working relationship with the project.
This gap is one of the study’s key findings. The research also shows that even well-funded walkability projects are shaped by the complex web of actors and relationships that make up urban governance. Their success, in other words, depends on the strength of that ecosystem.
Anchor Institutions
Universities, hospitals, and other large organizations — all tied to a particular place — are often considered anchor institutions. Their activities are deeply rooted in the communities where they operate, making them difficult to relocate and giving them a long-term stake in the well-being of surrounding communities.
In cities around the world, universities have used this position to support and lead efforts in urban revitalization and local development. In Latin America, however, the role of anchor institutions in urban development has received less attention than it has in the Global North.
Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Mexico City campus took on part of this role in response to the lack of existing mechanisms to address some of these needs. After a magnitude 7.1 earthquake damaged its facilities in 2017, the university rebuilt its campus and launched Distrito Tlalpan, an initiative covering 566 hectares, 16 neighborhoods, and more than 50,000 residents.
The project seeks to coordinate innovation and urban improvement efforts — including walkability projects — among public, private, academic, and civil society organizations. The initiative drew heavily on similar efforts developed through an earlier project called DistritoTec, which operated around Tecnológico de Monterrey’s campus in Monterrey.
Mapping the Actors
To better understand how walkability projects in “Distrito Tlalpan” have been implemented — and how they could be carried out in the future — the researchers conducted 22 semi-structured interviews and observed 29 meetings and events over several months.
Using this information, they created a map of the actors connected to the initiative and the communication links each one maintained with the university and with other participants.
The map revealed an important pattern: actors with decision-making authority over walkability projects were often the very ones with the weakest ties to the initiative.
Government institutions are a clear example. Of the 15 government actors involved in walkability initiatives, only seven had an established relationship with “Distrito Tlalpan.”
Government participation also tended to be project-specific — for example, approving a sidewalk expansion or issuing a permit — rather than part of an ongoing, long-term coordination effort.
Staff turnover and political cycles make the problem worse. Borough governments change every three years, while Mexico City’s government changes every six, forcing the university to periodically rebuild its relationships with public officials.
One university representative described the process as a constant back-and-forth: officials who initially expressed support for a project eventually pushed it aside when it competed with other political priorities.
Nearby businesses, schools, and hospitals were also poorly connected to the initiative. Although they operate on the same streets where walkability improvements are being implemented, most had little contact with the university’s efforts.
Bringing these actors into the process represents an important opportunity to build long-term coordination around pedestrian mobility.
Local residents were another critical group. Although the university’s relationship with the community has been central to the initiative, it has also presented challenges.
At times, concerns about potential protests or opposition led project leaders to present initiatives selectively to certain residents rather than developing broad participation processes that included different segments of the community.
This dynamic contributed to limited transparency in communication and, in some cases, generated resistance to proposed projects. At the same time, there were signs of opportunity: both community members and decision-makers expressed interest in strengthening collaboration and creating new ways to work together in the future.
Distrito Tlalpan: Lessons Learned
Fragmented coordination among different actors is common in Latin American cities. Overlapping levels of government, frequent staff turnover, and limited coordination among agencies, among other factors, can make long-term urban planning difficult.
The “Distrito Tlalpan” case adds another dimension: it makes these gaps visible and shows that building collaborative relationships requires a deliberate, sustained effort.
The importance of mapping actors goes beyond improving coordination. In other cities, university-led urban redevelopment efforts that fail to involve local communities have contributed to gentrification and resident displacement.
To avoid these outcomes, the researchers argue that diverse residents, local businesses, government officials, and other stakeholders need to be actively involved in planning and decision-making. Participation should begin in the early stages of the process, rather than once projects are already underway or after they have been implemented.
The lesson goes beyond a lack of commitment or resources. It points to a process that is often overlooked: building strong networks among the actors involved.
References
- Resendiz, E., Whitney, R.A., & Ponce-López, R. (2025). Mapping the actors: Anchor institutions and walkability projects in Southern Mexico City. Geoforum, 166, 104395.
- Birch, E., Perry, D.C., & Taylor Jr, H.L. (2013). Universities as anchor institutions. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 17(3), 7–16.
- Wolf-Powers, L. (2022). University City: History, Race, and Community in the Era of the Innovation District. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Authors
Ryan Anders Whitney. Assistant professor at the School of Architecture, Art and Design and a researcher at the Center for the Future of Cities at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City campus. His research focuses on urban models, planning equity, and governance, with a particular interest in planning more inclusive and equitable cities.
Eugen Resendiz. Assistant professor at the School of Architecture, Art and Design and a researcher at the Center for the Future of Cities at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City campus. Her work focuses on the intersection of public health, urban planning, and public policy, examining how the built environment shapes opportunities for physical activity.
Roberto Ponce-López. Assistant professor at the School of Government and Public Transformation, director of the Master’s in Data Science and Public Policy, and director of the Guadalajara office of the Center for the Future of Cities at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Guadalajara campus. His work focuses on urban information systems and public policy, particularly how transportation, land use, and urban expansion shape the growth of cities.
