Alameda Poniente

The Alameda Poniente is a great park in the City's west. Covering the area's infamous old landfills, today it's a vital community patch of green, and at some considerable height, it's also a terrific lookout point. You really can stop long enough to take in the surrounding skyscrapers, architectural oddities, and rugged natural landscape.

The park opened in 1981 as part of an coordinated effort to close and rehabilitate landfills. Today the park has had to adjust to its rather brash new neighbor, the Parque la Mexicana. In car-centric Santa Fe, La Mexicana is a 6-minute drive away, or a 2.5 hour walk. For neighbors of the Alameda, there's good reason to be involved in the local park. It faces pressure today from development, and from simply being overrun by cars wanting to park. But it's a place with a long historyLuckily, the Alameda Poniente is not far from the new section 4 of Chapultepec Park.

It continues a near-chain of ridge top parks that climb the peaks of Mexico City'swest. It's an especially important green area and sports field area for people in surrounding high-rise residential districts. The park also offers exceptional views of its near neighbor, the San Josemaría Escrivá Church.