Residents of Infonavit Cachanilla, a housing development in Tijuana’s Sánchez Taboada delegation, are calling on the municipal government for basic infrastructure repairs after three decades without meaningful maintenance. The predominantly elderly community reports broken street lighting, overgrown drainage channels, and deteriorating roads throughout the neighborhood.
Aging Residents Face Failing Streets and Lighting
Infonavit Cachanilla sits in Tijuana’s eastern Sánchez Taboada delegation, one of the city’s most densely populated administrative zones. The neighborhood was originally built by INFONAVIT (Mexico’s federal workers’ housing institute), which constructs affordable homes for salaried employees enrolled in the social security system. Like many INFONAVIT developments across Baja California, the homes were handed over to residents decades ago, but ongoing municipal maintenance never followed.
Residents describe streets that have gone unrepaved for 30 years, with potholes and crumbling asphalt making daily travel difficult. Street lighting has failed across multiple blocks, creating safety concerns after dark. Drainage areas are choked with overgrown vegetation, raising the risk of flooding during Tijuana’s rainy season, which typically runs from December through March.
A Pattern Across Tijuana’s Older Colonias
The situation in Infonavit Cachanilla mirrors a broader pattern in Tijuana, where older residential developments often fall into disrepair as the city’s rapid growth pulls municipal resources toward newer areas. Tijuana’s population has grown from roughly 750,000 in the early 1990s to more than 2 million today. That expansion has stretched city services thin, and established neighborhoods with aging populations frequently lose out to areas with louder political voices or more pressing emergencies.
A 2024 KPBS investigation into another Tijuana neighborhood found similar complaints: residents had asked the city government for paved roads and functioning sewage systems for decades without results. The gap between property ownership and actual city maintenance is a recurring friction point across Tijuana’s older colonias.
Sánchez Taboada itself is located roughly five miles southeast of the San Ysidro border crossing, making it accessible to cross-border commuters. The delegation includes a mix of working-class housing developments, commercial strips, and informal settlements spread across hilly terrain.
Residents have not yet received a formal response from Tijuana’s municipal government regarding their requests for street cleaning, repaving, and lighting repairs. The colonia’s aging demographic makes the infrastructure gaps especially acute, as older residents depend on walkable, well-lit streets for daily errands and medical appointments, according to Zeta Tijuana.