Dear Sir,
Before I make my point. I should mention to your readers that December 28 in Mexico is “Dia de los Inocentes” (like April Fools’ Day in the United States and Canada).
I thought the Reporter had jumped the gun on Dia de los Inocentes in their last issue with the front page headline. “Chapala a ‘Magic Town,’” (Pueblo Magico).
It had to be a joke, right? Obviously whoever proposed this designation for Chapala has never been to a Pueblo Magico! There could never be any similarities between Chapala and the Magic Towns of Mazamitla, Tapalpa and Comala.
I hope that the qualifications for such a designation never sink so low that Chapala would ever be in the running. Besides, when did the city of Chapala become a pueblo?
I was furthermore taken back to hear that three million pesos had been spent to “spiff-up” the center strip in front of the Presidencia in Chapala with the dream of that being an asset to the city.
The four billion pesos that is budgeted from federal funds to be spent on the country’s Pueblos Magicos in 2018 is, I believe, so far out of reason at a time when Mexico is seeing its oil income shrink drastically. And in two years’ time foreign oil companies can start pumping cheap gas in Mexico, so who exactly will be buying what Pemex has to offer?
Mexico is in for a dark time and elected officials should be preparing for that reality, not dreaming impossible dreams.
Instead of spending millions on a pipe dream, Chapala should be finding new sources of income right here at Lakeside – not counting on federal funds to save the day.
The fountain that Ricardo and I donated to the Malecon park in Ajijic (approximately two and a half years ago) has not been running for almost a year. Out of his own pocket, Harry Bublin bought the first replacement pump because it was accidentally left on with no water. The same thing happened again and no one has come forward to fix it. Yet three million pesos is being spent on embellishing an already functioning parkway.
The stone fountain in the Ajijic plaza has not run in many years and the stone figures are starting to disappear. Here is another project that has fallen into neglect after such a hoopla made over its inauguration.
Even if there were to be “major” improvements in the area through federal funding, one could be sure that in a short time they too would be abandoned and left in disrepair.
I recommend, instead of dreaming for the Pueblo Magico designation, we Chapalenses just tend to our current assets, maintain them and be happy with what we have. Less is more in times like these!
Tom Thompson
Dear Sir,
We read last week in the Reporter that Chapala is vying for status as a “Pueblo Magico” with a pricey facelift of various public areas.
This is at the same time that Ajijic, with its notable artistic community, rich traditions and colorful charm, is hit with a plague of tortuously loud and late banda concerts, late-night bar “eventos” as well as an ecologically ruinous, very loud, and very dusty motorcycle race track situated between residential areas and a nice water park. And all this is in the name of “promoting tourism”?
What is wrong with this picture?
I think that the new government in Chapala owes an explanation of this unfair double standard to the hard-working everyday people of Ajijic whose homes have been invaded by the intrusive noise, and who are not benefitting at all from this invasive new “entertainment.”
It does not pay to destroy a town in order to save it.
Micki Wendt, Ajijic