Mar de Cortes Campaign

I just saw a "well produced" TV commercial on CNN Headline News touting the Mar de Cortes project (Escalera Nautica). The dramatized infrastructure operated flawlessly and was busy ferrying a customer across the peninsula. Seems like Fantasyland isn't in Anaheim anymore.

The Web site continues the PR, quoting Aristotle among others. The best pitch describes how the project will save the environment and deliver the inhabitants from misery:

CONCLUSIONS
Alternative models

To summarize, the Sea of Cortez Region has serious social and economic problems; it faces anarchical urban sprawl, polarized regional development, the deterioration of its ecosystems, the overexploitation and loss of its natural resources, and the reduction of its productivity and competitiveness in agriculture and fishing, with the consequent loss of jobs and opportunities for the population.

It is necessary to create a new model of regional development with alternative types of projects which are sustainable over the course of time, appropriate in the light of new international economic perspectives, adaptable to free trade, open to the restructuring of the economy for the benefit of the population and to the redistribution of wealth.

Given its stagnation, by reorienting tourism from “sun and fun” to attract tourists more interested in “nature and culture”, tourism can become the sector that integrates and generates benefits for the entire Region. It must be transformed in line with international trends to avoid degrading natural resources and to contribute to their conservation.

Without decisive intervention coordinating the many interested parties, the inappropriate uses of the land and its natural resources will continue, as will disorderly growth and distribution of production and, consequently, the deterioration of the ecosystem and the population’s quality of life.

This Project is intended to create an alternative plan that complements current activities while contributing to the development and economic growth of the area. But it is also necessary to take concrete actions to improve the regional quality of life. This, finally, is the strategic goal of the Project; to build a better future for the inhabitants of the Region.


Mar de Cortes


[Edited on 11-11-2006 by Frigatebird]

The biggest rung on the Nautical Ladder will continue to be the one from San Diego to Santa Rosalallita and the "bridge" where the trucks will haul you to BOLA. I don't believe there is a large pool of boaters willing to make that trip just because of the proposed shortcut by road across the peninsula.

There will be local improvements. The fuel dock and boatyard at Puerto Escondido will result in a few more boats venturing north to Loreto and maybe Mulage.

And the project has brought adminstrators (API, Singlar) with rules, regulations and more fees to harbors and marinas.