From the Publisher's Desk
Is Our Future Built on Sand?
While admiring the sculptures on the beach at Mazatlán´s annual Sand Sculpture contest last month, I noticed that those crafted by the invited professional sculptors were built against a beach retaining wall above the high tide mark. The amateur sand castle builders were assigned plots near the shore where, in just a few hours, the incoming tide would destroy their proud creations in which they´d invested hours of manual labor.
It is the sand and sea which initially attracted visitors to Mazatlán. It has now evolved into attracting a more permanent foreign population. Condominium projects by the dozens have sprung up to accommodate new residents. It is estimated that at the Marina Mazatlán site alone, we are witnessing the birth of a city-within-a-city of 50,000 residents.
 
All of this new construction has appeared within the last two or three years. And all of it is built on an ancient infrastructure that is in desperate disrepair, which has been patched and re-patched to “make do.” The good news is that this year the first step was taken to provide the entire city with cleaner water.
 
But we are still playing catch-up. The Federal, State and Municipal governments must open their coffers to hire professional planners with extensive infrastructure expertise. As an example the Golden Zone, the largest tax base for the city, is at risk of imploding with potholes, broken sidewalks and insufficient parking. Another 28-storey condo development is due to begin construction in the Golden Zone without thought of the changing dynamics of this congested, popular tourist area.
 
When the municipality contracts out any public works, we suggest that the contractor post a 15 or 20 year bond to guaranty its work. One look at the recently renovated Malecón, already in need of major repair, should be a lesson well learned.
The ultimate judges of what we do now will be Mazatlán´s next generation. We have already let them down by not completing the promised sports complex on Insurgentes. Earmarked funds have been diverted to repairing and repaving. The money spent recently on restoring the city´s monuments could have paid for a couple of playing fields. Young soccer, baseball, tennis and basketball players will remember the camaraderie of team sports, not the name of yet another statue.
 
Are we building our future on sand? Not yet, but the city needs to adopt a proactive, not reactive, approach. The tide is rising fast and there´s no time to waste.
Michael J. Veselik
Publisher