¡Protejamos Nuestras EspeZIHes!

At the Mayor´s Thursday announcement party for this public "destruction" project, he didn´t dare to answer the question many are asking: Why do this project now, at the very peak of the tourist season? Why not wait until April, after Easter, when tourism has dropped off?

Folks aware of this "renewal project" ask: What´s wrong with the old surface? Clearly, there´s nothing wrong with it, save a few bumps and hollows. In fact the present, attractive cobblestone surface is barely 10 years old. The mayor, in his remarks yesterday, actually apologized to the former mayor, whose project the cobblestones were, for tearng it all up!

Clearly, many of the features that foreign tourists find attractive around Zihua-- be it crocs at La Ropa or the funky cobblestone walking spaces in the downtown core -- do not fit in with City Hall´s vision of transforming Zihua into just another glittering, glossy travel magazine photo op.

It's a money grab. Previous mayors would announce a project and by law locate an informative sign that had the amount budgeted and the company who won the contract bid, but to my knowledge every single public project he's been involved in even when he was Director de Desarrollo Urbano for a previous administration has been a no-bid contract automatically assigned to his construction and cement company, and always with inflated budgets. In Mexico, public budgets are always padded, no money is ever left over, and if they do go over budget there is never a penalty, so it's legal corruption to a point. But this guy takes it to the extreme, phony-smiling for the cameras the entire time.

Not only has be bought Playa Riscalillo with the money he's grifted being mayor, but he's allegedly trying to buy up the entire downtown waterfront.

But even worse is that no opposing political party points these things out because they want to do the exact same things! #PobrePueblo #MerecemosMejor