Mini report

Thanks, John.

Today is when the madness starts and summer vacation season goes into high gear as millions of city dwellers hit the roads and mostly head for the beaches, so if you'd just stayed a little longer you would have seen the transformation. But yes, AI is killing Ixtapa and I'm not having much luck getting the message across to the "responsible authorities" who should be imposing an AI tax on hotels within walking distance of the shopping areas that practice this exclusively.

The lack of police presence has also hurt Ixtapa's businesses in the shopping areas. For the few doing any business, after they get robbed a few times they just can't keep re-opening. The increased police presence currently being implemented with more to come and the promised 50 surveillance cameras to be installed over the next few months should help the authorities crack down on the types of crime affecting the local businesses. Unfortunately with the toll road to Morelia and the endless land invasions we've seen an increase in various types of crimes that cause a lot of folks to simply close up their businesses and move elsewhere. I guess once the criminals realize there's no business left for them here they'll move on to somewhere else more prosperous... the cucaracha effect.

As for Fonatur, during election years all kinds of government money suddenly becomes scarce. Hopefully now that the elections are over Fonatur will get back on track. What bugs me most about what they have done is they have developed and allowed to be developed once green areas that are not selling and probably will never sell successfully. They've gotten too far ahead of themselves and screwed up so badly trying to justify their jobs that they've allowed developments, including the ecocidal Lomas de Playa Linda, that should never have been allowed in the first place.