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April 27, 2003
A Bridge Too Feo
Thanks to the egregious lack of foresight
demonstrated so far in the construction of the Paso
Ancho vehicular bridge, one wonders how City Hall plans
to address the ensuing clamor to pave the hamlet’s
main thoroughfare and diminish the current health-threatening
dust levels. Will this, too, be a slapdash affair like
the bridge – poorly situated and dangerously designed
with little thought given to pedestrian safety, bicycle
traffic or the surrounding natural beauty? Will the
residents of the area be consulted before these same
developers are again given a green light to work their
magic?
These are some issues that might
be addressed:
Will the sidewalks be designed into the road or slapped
on as an afterthought, as with the bridge? Ditto for
bike lanes. How about an exercise trail?
Will there be fenced or otherwise farm-animal-proofed
areas for dumpsters so the garbage doesn’t get
strewn in every direction?
Has any thought been given to closing the bridge to
vehicles on weekends, at least in one direction?
If it was closed, say, at 10AM Saturday morning and
reopened at 10PM Sunday evening, few people would be
inconvenienced and it would be much more enjoyable for
visitors.
As it stands now, the area has been
pretty much ceded to vehicular traffic – it’s
certainly no longer attractive for walkers, bikers or
hikers. For all the talk emanating from Ayuntamiento
about weaning Vallarta from automobile traffic, one
doesn’t see much in the way of offering alternatives.
Paving Felipe Angeles will present
an opportunity to install underground communication
and power lines and restore a small part of the pass’s
natural beauty, though it’s too late to save the
beautiful shaded stretch just past the jaripeo that
the power company crassly destroyed.
The Easter vacation period is providing
a harrowing glimpse of how badly things can get out
of hand in the absence of sound planning. The fact that
the road is too narrow for passing has lead to traffic
tie-ups and ugly confrontations. Virtually every space
large enough to park a vehicle is occupied. There’s
not a trash receptacle in sight, let alone something
as complicated as a portable toilet. City buses lumber
over a road barely wide enough to accommodate them,
leaving clouds of dust and exhaust fumes in their wakes
and dropping off more visitors than the area is able
to absorb. Four-wheel ATV’s zoom through periodically
to give the too-lazy-to-walk crowd a dose of adventure”.
THEY are wearing bandanas over their faces; too bad
they can’t pass them out to the people who live
along their route! Small children who had had free rein
in the “downtown” area must now meander
perilously between parked and moving vehicles. Family
pets are disappearing faster than they can be toilet-trained.
As for the 21st Century marvel known
as the Paso Ancho Vehicular Bridge: For starters, the
beautiful and enormous centuries-old higuera tree that
adorned the border of Buenos Aires and Paso Ancho has
been effectively cut in half, contrary to the phony
assurances of city “planners”. To add insult
to injury, there’s now a steel staircase built
into what’s left of the tree, and a tacky restaurant
sign hangs from a surviving branch. This landmark could
easily have been spared in its entirety, at the same
time eliminating the tight and tricky curve overlooking
– you guessed it – a schoolyard.
There are, as yet, no railings along
the irregular sidewalks on either side of the bridge.
If someone were unfortunate enough to trip on a loose
wire or exposed rebar (both of which have thoughtfully
been provided) and fall over the side, he’d be
contending with up to a four meter drop onto rocks or
barbed wire fencing. I doubt the Lunar Rover could negotiate
the handicapped ramp, poured as it was with the precision
of a lava flow. And what’s the deal with the pyramidal
finials on the railing supports? Unless they’re
supposed to be a topographical scale model of the Sierra
Madre, it looks like each one was done by a different
person.
One shudders to think what’s
planned for the huge, leveled off area behind the old
pedestrian bridge, but if prior experience means anything,
you can bet it won’t be pretty. As one might expect,
the bronze plaque listing the poobahs responsible for
this debacle, sort of a vanity plate for politicians,
is firmly in place and brightly polished. Kinda makes
you wonder about the timing…
M.M.
Dear Editor,
Dear Jamie, I have enjoyed your columns
in the Vallarta Tribune and have learned many useful
things from them, including all about Mailwasher, which
I think is great.
Thus, I was disappointed to see the
column in last week's paper about the hoax called "life
is beautiful". Whenever I get emails like that,
I go directly to the Symantec site that lists all known
viruses and hoaxes. I have found that most people don't
know about this site, and if more people did, maybe
we wouldn't get so much email about hoaxes. I am sure
you know about it, but just in case, it is:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html
There you can look at the active
list, as well as look for whatever you want in their
alphabetical list. Maybe in one of your columns, you
could tell people about this site.
Thanks!
Marlene and Dick
Marlene and Dick,
Thank you very much for your email. I appreciate the
kind words concerning my columns. I shall forward your
email on to the paper's editor, as anything beyond my
own column on that page is "filler" although
typically Internet related, and outside of my control.
I indeed know the website you recommend as I refer to
it often. I have made reference to it in previous columns
and on your advice I shall again. I agree, the more
people can recognize what is most likely a hoax, and
then go to Symantec to verify, the less those emails
will make the rounds.
A similar hoax was printed sometime ago as if it were
a genuine virus, but of course, instead it helped propagate
that hoax further. I was concerned then, and again this
time, that some people know better and may mistakenly
attribute the placement of the bogus information to
me ...as you did!
I'll BCC the editor this reply to your well-placed comments,
although I'm afraid she might instruct me to write longer
articles!
Jamie
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