Funny you say that

I spoke with various friends today who are proud of the Majico status and with their Government.

Different strokes for different folks.

Yes, bright shiny new things are always popular with the non-discerning masses. But I think you and your friends missed the point. It would've been much more appropriate if the designation had come when it was first sought around 24 years ago by a committee that included my wife and a group of her friends. If Zihuatanejo today has anything in common with places like Taxco, Pátzcuaro, or any other Pueblo Mágico, feel free to point it out. We don't have any real history beyond the 20th century. Whatever quaintness we had has long ago been covered over by painted concrete and tens of thousands of hillside squatters promoted by corrupt politicians. We are no longer a pueblo but a ciudad with over 100,000 residents. So it's quite fitting and ironic that we get the designation the same year a Barbie movie comes out in theaters. But our real complaint is with the tacky decorations, the abuse of our remaining waterfront trees and the cartoonish Disneylandish look the current administration has given our town to commemorate the designation.

Thanks for this, Rob. When we read that Zihua had been added to the list of Pueblos Magicos, we wondered what the criteria had become, but held our tongues. We've visited many of the 132+ communities on the list. Though we love Zihua and have spent, cumulatively, the equivalent of perhaps 5 or 6 years "living there" over the past 20+ years, Zihua is not a Pueblo Magico, if the term is to mean anything.
(How a jewel like Copala in Sinaloa could be excluded, and Zihua included, is a mystery.)