Dear Sir,
While the Reporter generally has had newsy articles about the local area, it seems like there is a lot of “opinion” and not enough facts.
If you are on the “wrong side of 60,” as one of your people wrote in the San Miguel de Allende article (page 6) in last week’s issue, you will remember Jack Webb saying “just the facts, ma’am.” Who says that over 60 is the Wrong Side? Maybe it’s the Right Side – if you are alive and breathing, obviously, it’s the right side. This area would shrivel up and not even exist if it weren’t for the old folks who spend their retirement monies here.
And, who gave John Ward a whole editorial page to rant about his opinions about passports and visas etc? Yep – none of us like the additional security, especially since 9/11, but it’s the way of the world now. Yep – it’s inconvenient. The world is a much smaller world now, since World War I, with many more zillions of people traveling and many more idiot terrorists doing bad things to good people. Unfortunately, the liberal attitude of love and peace doesn’t work. If John Ward doesn’t like having a passport and feels violated, then go off the grid and don’t travel.
Chris Grant, Ajijic
Dear Sir,
In reading Dale Palfreys reporting on the “opinion” poll to be taken over the proposed narrowing of the highway as it passes through Ajijic, I would have hoped she could have included details of how and when the Chapala government gave approval to build on the “Federal Right of Way” that exists along the highway from Chapala to Jocotepec.
If one takes a close look at the construction in the five or six block section from Clinic Ajijic to Tempisque, one will see the original constructions were set back the required distance from the highway. But little by little, property owners took over the federal zone and extended their stores outward, taking away all parking.
Who wouldn’t take land that is not yours by title but right there in front of your property with no one to stop you?
Instead of offering to refurbish the store fronts that are sitting on land that is not theirs, the Jalisco and Chapala governments should just end the parking – period. Why accommodate an illegal act that causes great inconvenience to hundreds of thousands of people every year?
We are having a problem in the heart of Ajijic village with a neighbor (a foreigner) who has taken it upon himself to decide where people can park on “his” street. He has posted a no parking sign across from his driveway so that he alone can park there. On the opposite side of the street he has taken to painting the entire section of curb yellow so that no one can park in front his house.
Around the corner, his neighbors (also foreigners) extended the sidewalk outward so that they have more room for their house doors to open outwards. By growing their sidewalks they have shrunk the street making parking very difficult along the strip approaching the Lake Chapala Society – all this without permits.
The proper authorities in Ajijic and Chapala have been notified time and again about this situation, but no action has been taken. Perhaps the local government should look for state funds and offer to “refurbish” the facades of these homes in compensation for enforcing the local laws and allowing the street to be the width it was designed to be? Come on Chapala “grow a pair”!
Tom Thompson, Ajijic