Chris Hawley and Sergio Salache have put together an interesting profile on Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard in USA Today. One of the more interesting aspects of the article is the mayor’s push to ‘civilize’ the city.

Here are some of the ways he’s doing it:

1. Smoking in bars and restaurants: Banned

2. Thousands of street vendors: evicted from public streets

3. Plastic bags: Outlawed

4: Roads: Opened to joggers and cyclists

5: Out-of-state cars coming into the city between 5 a.m.-11 a.m.: Restricted (to reduce pollution)

6: Talking on cell phones while driving: Outlawed

7. Whistling at women: Strongly discouraged in new publicity campaign called the “Ten Commandments of Urban Conduct”

8. Throwing gum on the ground: Strongly discouraged in new publicity campaign called the “Ten Commandments of Urban Conduct”

9. Exhaust-belching microbuses: Replaced with cleaner, quieter buses

10. Children under 12 riding in the front seat: Outlawed

But civilizing a city comes at a price.

From USA Today:

Maximiliano Díaz, 45, had been selling handmade flutes and drums for 22 years from a booth in Coyoacán plaza. His sales have fallen by 80% since August, when the city forced him to move to a market built for vendors that is hard to find, Díaz says. “There’s this fever to civilize Mexico, but in the process we’re losing our rights to our public spaces,” Díaz says. “I understand the mayor wants to modernize us, but he’s taking away a bit of our culture.”

[Via: USA Today]