ViZIHblemente Alterado

"....... The locals will deal with our bad government..."

From what I've seen on Facebook, local media's fawning coverage of Jorge Sanchez, and the size of his crowds suggest he'll be around long enough to justify another "improvement" of the Paseo three years down the road.

The money from the bottomless budget for the remodelación is paying for a lot of that media loyalty.

It'll need improvement before that. I don't think folks realize what is being done to try to keep it presentable just for the political photo op that they can't take until after the elections. Incredibly costly and inefficient. Every day pipas have to come water ALL the plants, and even then, they've already lost one of the new palms in front of the museo, and I recall seeing another one whose top has browned, I think in the same area. Remember, all the plants they planted between La Madera and the Museo have already died. Meanwhile, the canal wall is all washed out under El Vado footbridge and will probably collapse in a heavy rain, which seem to be more and more common. Gee, there are some places that actually DO need cement but they're being ignored. And what the town continues clamoring for is that hospital I wrote about in an open letter to the governor last year. The same hospital that was promised to us by at least 3 of the past 4 administrations.

Just wondering, how would you feel if they surveyed a 1000 tourists, and based on the survey questions they found that 15% didn't like the change while 15% did, and the remaining 70% didn't care one way or the other? Not saying that would be the results, but it could be. My point being is we don't really know, and on this site, you're preaching to the choir.

I just got a call yesterday and talked to a long time friend there who was born and raised in Zihua. Didn't give her any indication about my like or dislike of the cancha. She expressed excitement about it and said wait until you see how beautiful it is. She doesn't live or work within a block or two of it, so her opinion may be completely different from that of you, your neighbors and those you speak to. Again my point being, we don't really know what the general consensus is even from the 80-100 thousand people who make up that general area of Zihua.

Yeah, I talked to a taxi driver all excited about it, too. Said the old one was full of dog crap. When I mentioned the same thing will happen to the new one, he apparently hadn't considered that. What a reason for giving approval to the remodelación, the total waste of a budget for something we didn't need, and the cutting down of so many old trees that made up part of our local character. There are some things I trust people to be able to give opinions about and other things I don't. Since I have already stated that for over 20 years, and really since Armando Federico was mayor, apparently no one here in any our official tourism offices has seriously made any effort to connect to foreigners in the USA and Canada, especially new markets like THE ENTIRE EAST COAST WHERE MOST OF THE MONEY IS, apparently too many of our local citizens haven't a clue why less foreigners are coming less frequently to Zihuatanejo, so they can like anything they want, but it still doesn't mean they know how to protect la gallina con los huevos de oro. The local government has ignored all your comments about pretty much everything and continued with their time-proven plan of making Zihuatanejo into a mini Acapulco, land invasions and all. The fact that some foreigners actually helped with the land invasions by donating to their "schools" was simply icing on the cake.

Lots of folks here also wanted a monster pier out into the middle of the bay for cruise ships. They may have even been a majority, I don't know. But QUÉ BUENO that some of us fought against it, even if we were a minority, and prevailed because otherwise we would've had an empty pier uglifying our bay for the best part of a decade now without any cruise ships using it. Market forces, violence, pandemia, there are many reasons we haven't had cruise ships for quite a few years now, none of them having to do with not having a special cruise ship pier.

I don't follow trends, and I don't trust public opinion on matters that most people are poorly informed on. Just because your friend thinks the waterfront looks good doesn't make it any better for those of us who live here near it who are now suffering the effects of the increased ambient temperature, the increased light pollution, and the noise and exhaust from the pipas trying to keep all the plants watered, among other new problems we now face including a higher risk of flooding because so much earth was removed from what used to be a garden and is now a concrete alley or spillway, take your pick. Not to mention the public funds being spent for questionable things such as palapas with concrete posts for all the restaurants, but only those on the waterfront. Frivolous. A project no one requested of dubious necessity when there are so many other things we urgently need, including serious tourism promotion in places where our potential tourists have historically come from, not Spain, Las Vegas and other poor excuses for public officials to take all-expenses-paid vacations at the taxpayers' expense. One even took his family and friends to see the Pope at the Vatican.

We could've improved the waterfront without cutting down any trees, paving any beach or giving away free palapas.

I'm comfortable with my take on the matter. I've lived here long enough and I'm embedded enough in the local community.