# Moving to mexico city



## Dawn18 (Aug 4, 2015)

Hi, I may be moving to Mexico City and was looking for some insight, I recently visited Polanco and I'm really not a city gal and plus I have three children, what would be the best place to live that is safe and good for children I will only be there for 6 years the most and want to make the right choice for my family, I went to Santa Fe, and seen one place that is a gated community and heard these places have there own back yard and are large with amenities but was not able to see inside so I have no clue what these homes/townhouses per say are like, does anyone know of these? I can not find websites to view, I also went to Busque which looked clean and a nice area but more buildings than anything, so if I could possibly get maybe some insight if anyone knows about these areas and if there are more areas that are safe, nice to live with a family. Thanks eveyone.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

There are nice places to live all over the city, mainly on the west side and the south. But the most important thing is the commute. Will you or your partner be working outside the home? If so, then you should choose an neighbourhood close to work. Otherwise the person who has to commute to work could be looking at spending many hours on the road daily.

Some other places: Roma, Condesa, parts of Coyoacán.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I live in colonia Cuauhtémoc, a nice safe neighborhood in back of the US Embassy. The rents will be much more reasonable than in fancy areas like Condesa. Polanco and Santa Fe. Sante Fe is not recommended unless you'll be working right in that area and like the idea of living in a huge gated community.


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## Dawn18 (Aug 4, 2015)

Thank you ladies, my husband will be working right by the embassy, friends who he will be working with say if he leaves early like they do, he will get to work in about 20 minutes no traffic. I think I would like the thought of santa fe being in a gated community since I have small kids 8,5 and 2, they will be attending one of the private schools there like American School Foundation, does anyone have any input as far as the private schools? And are there any websites available to view housing of these gated communities? As I have not been able to find any on the Internet. Also what about super markets and things of that nature, is there lots to do as far as having g little ones?


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## Dawn18 (Aug 4, 2015)

Hi Maesonna, thank you for your response. Yes my husband would be traveling for work right by the embassy, but friend ds he will be working with who live in Santa Fe in these gated communities say they leave really early and arrive at work before traffic, so thats not really our concern. We're coming for the schools for our children and rent is not an issue, we were looking in santa fe, I just looked at Condesa since I did not know of that place, also we ha e seen polanco but I'm not much of a city girl, so it's nice to visit there but I wouldn't want to live there, what's your opinion on Condesa, Santa Fe and Busque as far as having family in these areas? And there private schools?


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

I think you should be flexible about the idea that a gated community would be safer or better. For one thing, it marks your neighbourhood as affluent – a target, and the gate won’t keep out any serious thief. My friend’s sister told us an anecdote about how her neighbourhood got together and put in a gate and guard because they had had problems with car stealing. After they installed the ‘security measure’ the guard would let out residents and car thieves alike with a friendly wave and greeting.
Santa Fe doesn’t seem like an attractive place to live – granted I haven’t seen it except from a distance, but from what I’ve read about it, it seems like a sterile concrete jungle of highrises, with horrendous traffic problems to get in and out. But you’ve talked to people who live there, and no doubt they can tell you the nice things about it.
There are plenty of supermarkets everywhere, at least in my area of the city, and also markets selling fresh produce, and corner stores with all the essentials.
I love being able to go down the street to our neighbourhood store 1 minute’s walk away if I’m out of eggs, milk, cheese, flour, bread…
Really, I’m not a good source for information for you. I live far, far away from the area where your husband will be working, and I don’t know the area or schools there very well. We live in a little village (_in Mexico City_), and my kids went to a small neighbourhood private school (not bilingual, not expensive) until Grade 6, then they went to public school. We have a large yard with a big lawn and garden, and live next to a huge park. Our village is so small that we only have market day once a week – to go to a permanent every-day market we have to go to the ‘downtown’ of our borough – a 15-minute ride on the _pesero_ bus.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I've always felt that the people who live in Santa Fe, both Mexicans and foreigners, live there because they want to dissociate themselves as much as possible from the rest of Mexico City. You could end up rather isolated from the rest of this marvelous city and perhaps feel like you've never left the States! Then there's the small matter that it was built on a gigantic landfill aka monstrous garbage dump. 

As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of Santa Fe. Here's a comment about its design from a Wikipedia article (I advise you to read the whole thing): 

"Academics from many universities in Mexico and abroad have studied Santa Fe's design. Some believe that the design is well-planned while others believe that the design is poor and will harm the area. Enrique Martín Moreno and María Moreno of Iberoamericana University characterize Santa Fe as a self-contained city where the inhabitants do not venture outside. Jeffrey Inaba of Harvard University argued that Santa Fe should build connections to other parts of Mexico City. Roque González, the author of the original Santa Fe development project, said in 2005 'in 15 years will be a serious problem due to the fact that there are insufficient roads, public spaces, pedestrian areas. We're headed straight into gridlock and a lack of spaces usable by humans.' " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_Mexico_City


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of Santa Fe.


I concur. To me, moving to Mexico City and choosing to live in Santa Fe would be like moving to Paris and choosing to live in La Defense. 

In the words of Gertrude Stein, "there is no there there."


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Chelloveck said:


> I concur. To me, moving to Mexico City and choosing to live in Santa Fe would be like moving to Paris and choosing to live in La Defense.
> 
> In the words of Gertrude Stein, "there is no there there."


I have no idea what La Defense is, but I love the Gertrude Stein quote!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

La Defense is in Puteaux which is a great place to live. It is a burb right next to Nanterre and Neuilly and Boulogne on the river Seine on the west side of Paris
. I lived there for a while. The city has 2 vacation villages one in the mountains and one in Corsica where resident can vacation at a discount. It offers lots of classes, concerts and art classes. You can live in an appartment and you are right on the RER train and metro line you can walk 5 minutes and be on the island where you can enjoy all the tennis courts, dog training, handball and football games you want and where you can walk without being bothered by cars, you can shop downtown Puteaux which is full of Jewish and Arabic stores and so ..give me La Defense anytime over a lot of crudy areas in Paris. You obviously have never gome out of the business towers area. 
In La Defense the businesses are in the towers and very few people live there the rest of the population live in buildings typical of what you see in Paris

There is a lot more to La Defense than the business district and a lot more to do there than in Oakland which was I believe the city G Stein used to refer to.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Isla Verde said:


> I have no idea what La Defense is, but I love the Gertrude Stein quote!


Gertrude Stein said it about Oakland, California when she revisited it in 1933, some 55 years after leaving. She moved around as a child apparently, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Vienna; Paris; Oakland, California; then Baltimore, Maryland.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> Gertrude Stein said it about Oakland, California when she revisited it in 1933, some 55 years after leaving. She moved around as a child apparently, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Vienna; Paris; Oakland, California; then Baltimore, Maryland.


I was born in Philadelphia, PA, but spent a good part of my childhood in Levittown, PA, the prototype of the boring, characterless suburb. It is definitely a place of which it can be said, "There is no there there"!


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I wonder if any forum members know anyone who lives or has lived in Santa Fe. Just to provide a balanced view of the place to the OP.


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## shali9 (Aug 7, 2015)

Is living in Mexico City safe and inexpensive?


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## michmex (Jul 15, 2012)

shali9 said:


> Is living in Mexico City safe and inexpensive?


Like any large city there are areas (colonias) that are very, very expensive while others are very cheap. The same goes for crime. There are certain areas that have higher levels of crime, especially after dark. Really, the DF is quite similar to large cities in the USA in regards to safety.

Personally, I consider Mexico City to be very safe. I worked here from 1995-1997 and we have lived here since retiring in 2006. I have never experienced any crime nor has my family. I use public transport as it is usually more efficient given the heavy traffic. My wife uses our car for her work which takes her throughout the city as a visiting home nurse.

As to expenses, in general it is much less expensive than the USA. Housing is variable and can get very expensive to either buy or rent in certain areas. We live in a middle class area and find are living expenses to be much less than the USA. Families with children often send their kids to private schools that would be comparable to the better public schools in the USA. The huge difference in property taxes more than makes up for the tuition expense we pay.


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## Dawn18 (Aug 4, 2015)

Well I just got an update as to my choices of where we will be placed, we do not get to choose our housing but they take things we want into consideration, like family size, ours is 5, like if we want apartment or suburban etc, here are my areas of choice, Lomas De Tecamachalco,,Lomas De Chapultepec,,Polanco (I'm not a city girl), LA Herradura Interlomas,,Bosque de Las Lomas,,Santa Fe,, It's my husband and I and our son will be 9 at arrival, daughter will be 6, and youngest will be 3,,,,which area would you choose??? My husband knows a few people in most of these areas, Santa Fe gated community friend says he loves it and goes out with his family on the weekends, there's lots of kids in his community he said and they run around freely in there, and they have amenities as well, pool, basketball, fitness etc....so sound nice, but I wasn't sure, I don't know these people personally and love all the feed back I could get, and when I do move I plan to try and visit all mexico has to offer, I am by no means staying locked up in a gated community for years.


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## michmex (Jul 15, 2012)

Dawn18 said:


> Well I just got an update as to my choices of where we will be placed, we do not get to choose our housing but they take things we want into consideration, like family size, ours is 5, like if we want apartment or suburban etc, here are my areas of choice, Lomas De Tecamachalco,,Lomas De Chapultepec,,Polanco (I'm not a city girl), LA Herradura Interlomas,,Bosque de Las Lomas,,Santa Fe,, It's my husband and I and our son will be 9 at arrival, daughter will be 6, and youngest will be 3,,,,which area would you choose??? My husband knows a few people in most of these areas, Santa Fe gated community friend says he loves it and goes out with his family on the weekends, there's lots of kids in his community he said and they run around freely in there, and they have amenities as well, pool, basketball, fitness etc....so sound nice, but I wasn't sure, I don't know these people personally and love all the feed back I could get, and when I do move I plan to try and visit all mexico has to offer, I am by no means staying locked up in a gated community for years.


All of your choices are very nice areas. We have lived in both Lomas de Chapultepec and Lomas de Tecamachalco (very near Interlomas). My office was also very close to the U. S. Embassy (above the Sanborns in front of the Monumento a la Independencia, El Ángel)
. My commute time at 7:15 AM from Paseo de Las Palmas 800 in Lomas de Chapultepec was a minimum of 15-20 minutes. A 15 minute commute from Sante Fe which is further away means a VERY early departure!

It is more common to find streets closed to the public often with private security in most of the areas you mention rather than gated communities. The areas regarded as more exclusive would be Lomas de Chapultepec and Bosque de Las Lomas. The homes there are generally much larger with more "jardin". The apartments are also much larger with more amenities. La Herradua is very nice (a bit more quiet) but commute times can be very long. Interlomas is quite new and is a central area for shopping. You will find more apartments than homes there. The homes in Lomas de Tecamachalco tend to be a bit older but often have been renovated. Polanco is a destination area for shopping, eating, entertainment as well as work. Traffic can be very congested throughout the day and into the late evening. Sante Fe is also a destination area for shopping and work. 

More on Sante Fe

It is all quite new having been built in the last 20 years. The area was once a source of sand for construction in Mexico City. As the supply of sand became exhausted and erosion and safety issues increased,the owners of the sand quarries sold their lands to the Federal District which used the area as a landfill. Much of today's Sante Fe is constructed upon layers of compacted sand on top of millions of tons of garbage on top of old sand deposits.

Some info from Wikipedia (2014 ??) 70,000 employees - 13,500 Students at 4 Universities - 8 Million annual visitors to the mall, Centro Sante Fe - 4311 Resident Families.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_Mexico_City



Good Luck on Your Search.


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