Gentrification and Traveling Responsibly
Published Jul 3, 2026 · updated Jul 3, 2026
Yes, it is real, and no, you booking a week in Roma Norte is not the villain here. The honest version: a wave of remote workers earning dollars landed on two neighborhoods that were already gentrifying, and prices moved faster than local wages could. You can travel here without pretending the problem does not exist, and without flagellating yourself either. What matters is where your money lands.
What actually happened
After 2020, Mexico City’s Roma, Condesa, Juarez and Escandon filled with long-stay foreigners. Landlords noticed they could charge in effect dollar rents, listings shifted to Airbnb, and long-term leases for locals dried up in exactly the blocks people most wanted. Oaxaca’s centro saw a smaller version of the same, sharpened because Oaxaca’s wages are lower and its cultural draw is enormous.
The protests in 2025 in Mexico City were loud, and some of the anger got ugly and xenophobic. Strip that away and the core complaint is fair: people who grew up in a neighborhood cannot afford to stay in it.
What locals actually say
It is not “tourists go home.” Talk to people and the frustration is specific: entire buildings converted to short-term rentals, cafes where the menu is only in English, rents quoted in dollars. Spending money is welcome. Hollowing out a neighborhood so it serves only visitors is not.
What a friend who lives here would tell you
Stay in a hotel or a room in a building where people also live, not a whole apartment that was pulled off the long-term market. If you do book an apartment, pick a hosted spot or a smaller building over a company running twenty units.
Concrete ways to spend better
- Eat at the fondas, mercados and family places, not only the imported brunch spots. In Oaxaca that means the comedores inside Mercado 20 de Noviembre, not just the rooftop bars.
- Spread out. Sleep in Narvarte, Del Valle or Santa Maria la Ribera instead of piling into Condesa.
- Pay guides, cooks and artists directly. A market tour or a class puts money straight into local hands.
- Learn enough Spanish to order and greet. It changes how you are received and it is basic respect.
- Tip in cash, in pesos, generously by local standards.
You are a guest in someone’s actual home neighborhood. Act like it, and you are part of the good version of this.