This is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here.
All that was left of a three-story apartment building situated atop a Tijuana hillside was a pile of rubble and cloud of smoke.
The building fell during a landslide in April brought on by heavy rains. The impact was so powerful it caused the nearby road to shake. It was the second building collapse in Tijuana that month — and more are likely to come.
City officials are currently monitoring 12 other buildings that are at risk of collapse.
Experts see this as the latest sign that Tijuana’s infrastructure has failed to keep up with growth — they say the city is crumbling under the weight of its 2.2 million residents.
Building collapses are just part of the problem. Poorly constructed homes and drainage systems have made the streets of some neighborhoods death traps during heavy rains.
Decades of shoddy and sometimes illegal construction and poor government oversight are largely to blame, according to Carmen Romo, an activist with Tijuana Calidad de Vida, a group that monitors Tijuana’s infrastructure woes.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramirez’s administration could do more to prevent these catastrophes, but she, like her predecessors, doesn’t have a clear plan, Romo said.
“What happens is, the city comes out with a more reactive action for whatever is already broken,” she said. “But they don’t actually have programs to rehab, modernize and maintain. So, when it collapses, that’s when they come.”
Tijuana isn’t alone among Mexico’s big cities when it comes to infrastructure problems. According to a recent study, 25% of people who moved out of Mexico City between 2015 and 2020 cited poor infrastructure and mobility as the main reasons.
But Tijuana is different in terms of geography. The city’s steep hillsides and canyons create complex problems. Rains cause flash floods to rush down those hillsides with enough force to drag people and cars to the bottom of canyons.
“We had (the bodies of) two teenagers wash up just a little bit south of here,” Romo said while standing in the bottom of an area called Cañon del Matadero a few miles west of the San Ysidro border crossing.
The entire city shuts down during heavy rain events. Traffic comes to a standstill, neighborhoods flood, schools close and officials blast public service announcements asking everyone to stay indoors.
But deaths are still relatively common.
In November 2022, a brother and sister were swept up by a particularly strong current. Their bodies were found days after the storm three miles away from where they were last seen.
In January, two children died when their home collapsed during a storm. Firefighters rescued their parents and a younger sibling.
Building without permits
Roughly 40% of Tijuana’s homes are built without permits, according to Romo and other experts. Many don’t have retaining walls or a solid foundation. They are built on bare hillsides that don’t have any vegetation to prevent erosion.
City officials call this type of “irregular construction,” as one of the main contributors of landslides.
“All of this is based on the fact that they don’t respect the rules and regulations in these neighborhoods,” said Juan Enrique Bautists Corona, director of Tijuana’s Urban Development Department.
Tijuana is in the midst of a housing construction boom that is partly fueled by Americans in search of more affordable housing options. Rents in Tijuana are among the highest in Mexico and supply is limited. So it’s not uncommon for people to simply build a house on a vacant plot of land.
Bautista Corona insists that city officials are proactive when it comes to this issue.
The city works with engineers and geologists to monitor structures that are at risk of collapse. It also has a program to assist families willing to relocate from dangerous areas, he said.
However, some of the relocation programs and alternative housing options are only available for residents who can show an official deed of ownership. People who live in illegal buildings don’t have that document.
Bautista Corona said the city can only do so much if residents won’t protect themselves. Some have spent decades in these neighborhoods and won’t leave, even with the landslide risk.
“Unfortunately, we cannot remove them by force,” he said.
A complex problem
That dynamic is one reason why Tijuana’s infrastructure challenges are so difficult to solve.
It’s not just a matter of throwing money at it, according to Juan Manuel Rodriguez Esteves, a professor who has spent decades studying and writing about the issue.
“This is a problem that, when you look at it from the outside, it looks straightforward,” Rodriguez Esteves said. “But when you get into the details, start talking to people involved, it gets much more difficult.”
People moved into these hillside neighborhoods because there aren’t other affordable housing options. Some of these areas have grown from one or two houses to entire communities with schools and jobs. Residents aren’t going to leave unless there is a better option, he said.
Rodriguez Esteves compared the dynamic to people living in California’s flood and fire-prone areas.
“Their priority is getting to work on time, picking up their kids at school, making sure they have enough to pay the rent,” he said.
It’s also a matter of holding the government accountable. That three-unit apartment building that collapsed in April went through Tijuana’s permitting process.
“There are a lot of regulations in Mexico, the problem is that they aren’t enforced,” said Rodriguez Esteves.
Activists aren’t optimistic about Tijuana’s ability to address this issue any time soon. And the clock is ticking.
“Climate change is imminent,” Romo said. “Storms are going to be more intense. We need to be prepared for that.”
