(8th) Street Hassle

[libbyb]

Originally Posted by ami

Yes, I've read those reviews before and the last two really made me laugh.

"Do you like margaritas? Well, you can't have one because the bar isn't open yet. But you can feel like one if you turn the AC on in your room" Loosely translated, of course.


Just wondering if anyone from the forum has been by and what their impressions are.

It looks very nice from the outside, but I have not seen the rooms.

My husband and I stayed at the Mosquito Blue a while ago. I wanted someplace very nice for our anniversary trip, so we shelled out the bucks for it. We were a bit disappointed. We could have stayed someplace cheaper and had a better experience. Although the grounds are gorgeous, the rooms were just fine and the "service" came with an attitude. It wasn't really a bad hotel, just not worth the money.

[ryberg]

Dusting off the mothballs on this thread in the interest of tying up loose ends.

What may be the last in another round of meetings regarding access to and parking on 8th street was held yesterday, between owners of properties and businesses there and city tourism and transit officials. The result was that 8th street has been declared a newly pedestrianized zone, closed to traffic just as 5th Ave or some of the other cross streets (calle 4, for example, where Mimi del Mar is). Indeed a police officer was stationed right between Jungla Caribe and La Parrilla this morning when I came in, with a line of 5-6 orange cones between those two locales, and whereas yesterday the street was more or less full with parked cars, today there were only 5, evidently those that haven't been driven out yet.

Naturally this is Mexico and enforcement in particular is always somewhat questionable and variable. However this move appears to be more or less definitive and permanent, as the meeting was convened by tourism head Lenin Amaro, there were more owners or owner representatives at the meeting than there ever have been before (including several who showed up for the first time), a vote was formally taken and counted after discussion, and, for example, paperwork is already going around regarding the 1,000 pesos or so that each owner will be paying the city every month to cover the salary of the officials like the one I mentioned above.

Why so many would support this idea is a bit beyond us, as it seems both unnecessary (if people could revert to exercising a bit more common sense and respect, as in the past, with a little consistent enforcement to help), and we can only chalk it up to lack of deeper thought and the success of some politicking among some owners. Chief among those in favor of simply re-establishing the previous system, with increased mutual respect and consistent enforcement, were us, Treetops and Dive Mike, though a few others were also involved. Ironically the chosen speaker for the side arguing to close the street was definition the one with the least knowledge of the history of this subject, namely a woman from Mosquito Beach who had not been at previous meetins and who (based on her comments) would appear now to be the manager of the Mosquito properties (though just who is the responsable there can be rather a tricky question, in our experience).

[Note that I say that about being the least informed precisely because of the late arrival of that property and its personnel on the street, after the period in which the previous arrangement for parking was working well. I'm not on a vendetta against her personally, as was suggested in the fray of the meeting. ]

Unfortunately while things did work before, what we have seen in the past is a proliferation of the cones-at-the-(alleged-)entrance battle, whether somewhat more excessive involving half a dozen spaces



or more reasonable, involving just 1-2



but of course adding up to big problems when everybody started doing it. Which is to say it's basically another case where the world would work better except that people are too unwilling to be respectful and cooperate (if you ask me, at least). Well that and, as I say, not a lot of evident thought going into the decision-making process, and a fair amount of what seemed to be rather questionable or maybe irrelevant input, such as that guests don't complain about loud music from clubs even right nextdoor at hotels on 5th, but do complain about noise from people walking down the street. ( Just why that bit of info, even if strangely true, would mean 8th street should be pedestrianized just as 5th is frankly escaped me.)

Anyway, I should add that officials indicated what we already suspected, namely that other streets would follow. (The MB2 rep seemed a little more concerned when that was said about 12th street!) And they went on to add that eventually, there would be no free parking in the tourist zone anywhere. Those folks who built that huge parking garage diagonally opposite La Tortuga would seem to have excellent timing.

Well maybe that does it for this topic, and as always, FWIW...

Steve

[Heather]

How are you going to handle guests arrivals and departures?

[ryberg]

Well either by the guests/drivers showing confirmation info to the official when coming in or going out, as tránsito suggested would be the case at one point during the meeting, or just as they are handled on 4th street or 5th Ave or in other places not accessible by car, namely on foot. As Claudine of Alhambra pointed out (quite correctly), there are numerous places in Mexico as well as in Europe where hotels are not accessible to the public by car and people traverse pedestrian zones to get to them. (Again we don't see that as the way to go, but others apparently do.)

Another... well, intriguing argument for the change from the side in favor of it yesterday is that it would supposely raise property values.

Edit: In fairness and in relation to that last point, perhaps, I should add that I think some of the reasoning for the move is based on the idea that the restaurants and shops or other little businesses on the street will benefit in the form of increased traffic (pedestrian, obviously, not vehicle) and thus increased sales or whatever. So for examplethe restaurant in the alleged "cursed" spot (as discussed on the "openings & closings' thread by others recently) might find itself with more customers or whatever. Personally I think it's the nature of the lsidestreet ocation in general and all the competition on 5th itself that slows business to such places, not whether cars are parked along the sides of the businesses, so I see that view as misinformed or perhaps optimistically naive. But it's a view, and just to mention it.

Steve

[Heather]

I was just asking about the arrival/departure thing so that I know what to tell people requesting transfers to the hotels there.

[ryberg]

Yes of course. And I'm sure many people will have that question -- I was just adding comments that came to mind about the situation. We've gotten the same question from the agents we've informed and from the head of the transfer service we use, too, and as I told them, I think we will have to see how it goes with the enforcement and showing the police confirmations and such. You never know here how it's going to go until it's been going for a while.

Steve

[ryberg]

A humorous but not very surprising note: it would appear various properties are now reneging on the payment aspect of this situation, effectively rescinding their own votes to pedestrianize the street in the first place (as payment was explicitly part of that from the beginning). Ya gotta love people: sit and talk and debate and discuss and argue for something for hours and vote for it and everything (again including the payment portion of it), and then just change their minds later and drop the ball, nullifying all that previous effort.

We can only assume that if this new trend continues, transit authorities will immediately remove the official they've put in place (since nobody would then be paying his salary) and presumably the entire thing would then collapse, despite all the fuss. But we'll keep you informed!

Steve