“They only lasted a few weeks”
Four years after its inauguration, the electric stairs of the Pradera neighborhood are far from resembling the Colombian project that once inspired them. On a tour made by Political expansion It was found that they have been extinguished for months and today they look completely abandoned.
The three sections have become improvised garbage deposits: fried bags, water and soda bottles, as well as food remains and even animals of animals.
(David Santiago)
Throughout their 58 meters, glass railings show dirt, dust spots and graffiti that break with the image that the project sought.
In different sections of the Electric Stairs, there are video surveillance cameras, which were vandalized, some that point to the ground and other broken crystals, while the luminaries, look worn out.
On the sides are the concrete stairs, designed as an alternative for those who preferred to go up or down, in case of the correct operation of electromechanics.
In 2021 they were intervened with murals and motivating phrases between each step such as: “Give your own love”, “You are free, so fly”, “Woman, value”, “smile, then we look for the reason”, now neglected.
(David Santiago)
In the lower part, a work by the artist Rodrigo de la Sierra called “La Escalera”, with his “Timo” character, receives the inhabitants of the area. At the top, a great mural of men releasing birds from real cages … and oxidized.
(David Santiago)
A little more than 150 meters from Pradea Street is the funicular, the second projected work to improve the mobility of the area, which is also forgotten. At both ends, mechanical elements are observed, piled up and dusty by the lack of use.
Tired and with sweat on the forehead for climbing 124 concrete steps, Rigoberto remembers that the electric stairs have not worked for years, however, for the neighbor of the La Apaña neighborhood, the reproach to the past and current authority is for doing nothing to “revive” the project.
“They only served to make (the authorities) come to take the photo, as soon as I lasted a few weeks, I used them several times, but out of nowhere they stopped them,” he says.
Rodolfo Martínez considers that the project, although it was a good idea to support the rise and descent of the neighbors, it is unfinished, since to reach the stairs you must walk 150 meters of climb and once the electric stairs are finished, another section must be walking to take to the Tamaulipas avenue, one of the main access and exit roads.
“If this project was a bit bad, it did not take long to end when they broke down, they no longer pull, they don’t even turn them on, now they are abandoned,” he says.
José Fortunato García, a neighbor of the State of Hidalgo neighborhood, considers that intervention with muralism and lighting has worked and improved the environment of the area, although he acknowledges that he lacks maintenance. He assures that by the inoperance of the electric stairs, the inhabitants “have no other” but to continue using the concrete stairs.
“If you look pretty, it looks good. The problem is that they did not work (the stairs), people ask them to fix because these climbs are very hard,” he says.
The CDMX promises to review project
On August 2, the Head of Government, Clara Brugada visited the mayor of Álvaro Obregón to launch the urban and neighborhood improvement program, called “My city becomes pretty.”
In the Assembly, the capital’s president received complaints against the authorities of the Mayor’s Office Álvaro Obregón for not launching both the electric and funicular stairs.
In response, the president promised to review through the Ministry of Works and Services the electromechanical elements of the project.
“They are public resources that cannot be wasted and you can practically spoil things. So we have to rescue, we have to see what is required. We are going to see the funicular, then the stairs and everything we have to see,” he said.
At the close of this text, the mayor of Álvaro Obregón declined to set a position on the inoperance of the electric and funicular stairs.
