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April 6, 2003.
This past week has been filled with
so many incongruous, unrelated events that in all honesty,
I must admit I haven’t the slightest idea where
to begin. Consequently I think I will just lay out the
facts for you as I discovered them in the local papers,
and let you come to your own conclusions - and opinions
of course.
Starting with the oldest “news”
first, following the chronological order of events,
the headlines read “Self-serve stores ‘rebel’
and stop paying”. This was in reference to the
fact that Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Mega Comercial
had suddenly stopped paying their dues for the collection
of their refuse, a move that purportedly took the authorities
by surprise. As their debt amounts to some $24,168.
pesos per month, the Aseo Público Department
was instructed not to collect the garbage from those
locations until the payments had been made. Each of
the stores generates an average of 8 to 10 cubic yards
of garbage per day, representing one and a half containers.
Then, with Spring Break here and
all the “spring breakers” dancing and gyrating
their nights away in the hot spots along the Malecon
-and on the tables therein and thereout- and the problems
this town has had with the excessive number of liquor
permits being issued to anyone and everyone wishing
to open a corner outlet, the authorities decided to
start a campaign prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic
drinks in public areas. The restaurant owners’
association (Canirac) is in full agreement with the
measure. If you happen to be out and about in the Malecon
area one of these evenings, keep your eyes peeled and
let us know if the measure is working.
And while you’re still anywhere
near the Malecon, you might want to check out whether
they’ve implemented another set of new measures
that have been voted upon to reduce the parking time
of vehicles downtown. They’ve decided to mark
the tires with chalk. I don’t know about you guys,
but unless you have a very large, very hard-working,
well-paid, dedicated team of officers to do the job,
it ain’t gonna happen. Supposedly, many critics
have already commented that the chalk thing wouldn’t
work - mostly due to lack of personnel. In response,
others proposed the installation of some sort of ticket-issuing
machines at every street corner. That dispensing machine
would issue a ticket in exchange for some money, and
that ticket would have to be placed on your dashboard
for all to see. If the system worked -and it does in
many North American cities - that would mean that if
there were no tickee on the dashboard, no parking would
be allowed… another kind of ticket would be issued
(the kind you have to pay, a.k.a. a fine) and your car
might no longer be where you left it. But there again,
like any system, many people are needed to make either
of the systems work properly.
As you may recall, the famous Tianguis
(Travel Trade Show) was scheduled to take place in Acapulco
the last few days of March and the first few of this
month. Well, it turns out that PV councilwoman Gloria
Palacios questioned the need for this town’s representatives
of the municipal government to be there and the cost
this represented to the city coffers, considering that
-as she put it- they had no working agenda and in any
case, such costs would be better used on public works
and improvement in the less privileged neighborhoods.
According to the beautiful and outspoken lady, the participation
of these councilmen would consist in nothing more than
acting as hosts at the Puerto Vallarta stand. You gotta
take your hat off to that lady!
In response to the reader who asked
about the replacement of the sculptures along the Malecon,
my colleague Noemí Zamora reported that City
Hall would be investing $258,000. pesos to have them
reinstalled where they belong. Diana Duarte is responsible
for organization and logistics for the Department of
Culture and Recreation. She stated that as some of the
sculptures are donations to the City Hall, the artists
undertook to donate their talents -but not the materials-
to repair them. That’s all I could find out.
Next, I read that the inaugural flight
of Allegro airlines took place last week, finally, flying
from Oakland to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta. The airlines’
regional manager Duana Rubio said it would use MD83’s
with 152 seats and that there would be four flights
a week. Allegro was supposed to have started flying
months ago…
And then we get back to the never-ending
topic of the Convention Center. As the locals know very
well, this is a facility that Vallarta desperately needs.
It has been discussed for years during which dozens
of different committees were created to analyze the
matter …and discuss it some more. For the last
few months, the Governor of this state has told the
media that he would make a decision within the next
week, two weeks, one month, etc. None ever came. Last
week, I read that the Coordinating Council of Puerto
Vallarta was working on trying to reach a consensus
to promote the construction of the long-awaited center
on the land proposed by the “scientific committee
of the El Salado Estuary Trust” …in the
estuary. Purportedly, this proposal has the support
of the majority and will be submitted to the Governor.
It would allow for the preservation of that natural
environment while giving the town an infrastructure
that would allow it to increase the number of expositions,
trade shows and conventions held here in the months
to come, getting access to the zero tax measure applicable
to conventions scheduled to come into effect next January.
I for one will not hold my breath.
Last Sunday, my friend and I went
to check out the Sunday Brunch at the Blue Chairs Hotel.
Both the food and the view from the rooftop venue are
delightful, and the prices are reasonable too. I’ll
tell you more about it next week. A few weeks ago, we
received an e-mail from a reader who was asking where
he and his lady could go for Sunday Brunch as the Sheraton
was closed… At the time, the only place we found
for sure was the elegant Quinta Real Hotel in Marina
Vallarta. Well, since then, we were advised that the
Westin Regina Resort has started to offer its impressive
Sunday Brunch again as well. If it is anything like
the brunches they used to offer a couple of years ago,
you should really try it! According to my humble opinion,
they put on the most incredible spread I have seen in
this town. In that context, I proposed to my superiors
that we check out the various offerings over the next
few Sundays. If they accept, I promise to report my
findings to you as objectively as I can.
We also received an e-mail from our
friend T.J. with regard to the letter we published last
week on the origin of “Taps”. T.J. wrote:
“While the story is very romantic, it is unfortunately
the figment of someone's imagination. The story has
floated around the internet for years. For more information,
and the true origin of "Taps", go to http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/taps.htm”
By the way, I've been fooled by this story also.”
Thank you, T.J. Now we don’t feel so stupid.
Have a fabulous week, dear readers.
Spring has sprung and the air has lost that unusual
chill we felt over the last few weeks, the sun is back
after it got tired of playing hide-and-seek for some
four days, so make sure you’ve got plenty of sun
block on. Take good care of each other.
Hasta luego.
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