From the Publisher's Desk
A Day in the Park
 
One of the true signs of a civilized, user-friendly city is the presence of parks. What would New York be without Central Park, or Vancouver without Stanley Park, where city inhabitants can picnic on green grass, throw a Frisbee and take a nap under the spreading branches of a shade tree? Parks provide relief from our daily lives of concrete streets and buildings, and belching bus fumes. They provide an oasis of calm relaxation, reminding us to slow down and take a deep breath. A city without parks is a city without a soul.
 
Parks have been sadly lacking in Mazatlán. We do have the Bosque de la Ciudad, but for a city of 400,000 inhabitants one park is woefully insufficient. Recently, Mazatlán Mayor Ricardo Ramirez announced that the abandoned, grafitti-covered civic hospital on Paseo Claussen would be razed to make way for a public park. The old civic hospital, which for years has been a hangout for transients and drug users, sits on a prime piece of real estate overlooking the sea. It is not hard to imagine it being replaced with rolling green lawns, benches and shade trees with a million dollar view of the ocean. We applaud City Hall for remembering the families of Mazatlán with this project.
 
Another long overdue project announced by the city is the Juarez Sports Complex on Av. Insurgentes. This ambitious plan calls for the construction of an olympic sized pool, basketball court, two little league and three adult league baseball fields, two soccer fields and two tennis courts. An underground water sprinkling system will maintain the field grass. As well, some of the existing baseball and soccer fields around the city are being updated with lights and new grass.
 
Thanks to these improvements, the kids of Mazatlán might forget about nighttime graffiti sorties, drugs and alcohol, and instead meet on the playing fields to enjoy a game and the comradeship of teammates. As adults, they may not remember the names of the many monuments scattered throughout the city which have cost hundreds of thousands of pesos. As adults, they will thank the Mazatlán government for putting youth sports on the top of its priority list. Today´s kids will become tomorrow´s involved citizens with the welfare of subsequent generations uppermost in their minds. We applaud the government for thinking of Mazatlán´s kids and their futures.
 
Michael J. Veselik
Publisher