Whenever I am in Condesa I feel a bit of nostalgia as I pass by restaurants where I used dine, parks where I used to stroll, even the laundry where I used to take my clothes. There is also a bit of sadness because Condesa was hit hard by the earthquake of 2017.
I began renting my present apartment in the Nápoles neighborhood in April of 2017. An earthquake hit five months later on September 19. I was not in Mexico at the time. Nápoles came through with very little damage; Condesa was not so fortunate.
The apartment building in which my former Airbnb rental was located suffered substantial damage. On subsequent trips I would make it a point to pass through the old neighborhood. The building was still partially occupied, and I would sometimes chat with the doorman who remembered me from my previous stays. He said that there was debate among the residents over whether to tear the building down or to repair it. The last time that I spoke with him, last April, he said that the building was going to be demolished and rebuilt.
When I walked down leafy Amsterdam Avenue the other day, I found that the building was still there, but barricaded and covered with netting. It looked as if perhaps preparations were being made for demolition in the near future.
However, apparently there was a change in plans.
The sign on the barricade says, "This property suffered damage from the earthquake of the 19th of September of 2017. It is in the process of reconstruction."
While walking through the neighborhood I saw several other buildings in the process of repair. I just hope that they are making those buildings capable of withstanding the next "big one"... which, going by past history, would be about thirty years from now.
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