BajaNomad - Tijuana doesn't deserve its bad rap

Tijuana doesn't deserve its bad rap

BajaNews - 10-22-2008 at 09:56 AM

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ricksteveseurope/20082...

By Rick Steves

A year ago I was excited about Tangier in Morocco and wrote in my blog, "It's no longer the Tijuana of Africa." I didn't realize my comments would understandably touch a nerve with people who like Tijuana.

So recently I went to Tijuana — a Mexican town just across the U.S. border from San Diego — to give it a second look. OK, I admit, I'd never been there ... so I'd give it a first look. Working on my upcoming book on the value of travel as a political act, I also wanted to visit a rough border town where the First World meets the Developing World.

I had a great time. While Tijuana isn't a main destination town, it's fun to visit as a side trip from San Diego or a stop while heading south. And if you want to observe the cultural and economic riptides created when two worlds collide, it's a fascinating case study.

At what locals claim is the busiest international border in the world, 24 lanes are busy with traffic — 24/7. A trolley zips tourists from San Diego right to the border for $3. It also brings Mexican workers into San Diego on a daily commute that thousands make. Drivers can park within 100 yards of the border for $8 a day. Tijuana, barely a century old, thrives today with 1.5 million people. A local explained to me that there's a big funnel from Mexico to the United States, and Tijuana is the little hole through which everything flows. While there's the cross-border business — legal and illegal — there's also a thriving industry stoked by 650 maquiladoras — assembly factories for First World manufacturers, located here for the cheap labor. With plants for Samsung, Sony, and Hitachi, locals claim that more TVs are assembled here than anywhere else.

Throughout Mexico, Tijuana is considered a place of opportunity. With this thriving economy comes a thriving culture: music, arts, and an impressive cultural center. The city, while architecturally dilapidated, is extremely clean. The streets were free of litter. Locals thank their new government that "gets things done."

Tijuana's tiny old town, which radiates from the arch on Revolution Avenue, feels like a ramshackle version of the 1950s. You can't miss all the things people come to a border town for: plastic surgery, dentistry, pharmaceuticals without prescriptions, cheap haircuts, Cuban cigars, and, of course, jumping beans. The kitsch is riveting — glow-in-the-dark tattoos and hucksters hollering "Hello, 100 percent off today!" On nearly every street corner is a vendor with a donkey painted like a zebra, ready for you to don a sombrero and pose for a photo.

Bars that feel like saloons come with cheap prostitutes wearing down their stiletto heels at the doors. Apparently the siesta is alive and well, as these places rent rooms by the hour. (There are also plenty of decent places — without company for hire in the lobbies — renting $40 rooms on or near Revolution Avenue.)

After a salesman promised me that the two-hour, $10 bus tour came with a fine guided narration in English, I hopped on the bus. It was a great tour — but with no guide. I chatted the best I could with the driver. He said the United States and Mexico are brothers, stuck together. If the U.S. gets the flu, Mexico gets pneumonia.

Hopping off the bus at the cathedral, I grabbed a pew, and joined a Mass. Sitting with hundreds of Mexicans, I enjoyed a vivid reminder that the gang that tourists see along Revolution Avenue and in front of the saloons is photogenic but not representative. This was the real Tijuana. Taking an hour out of their Sundays to worship, these people — wearing hooded sweatshirts, T-shirts, and cheap shoes picked up for $3 at a street market — were the hardworking citizens of their world.

And as I that church along with all those people, and bought a bag of fresh-baked churros crusted in sugar, it occurred to me how wrong I had been about Tijuana.

Woooosh - 10-22-2008 at 10:26 AM

He got out before dark apparently.

woody with a view - 10-22-2008 at 10:26 AM

the percentage of the reputation that fits is proportional to the misery it keeps, and dishes out.... :?:

edit: content

[Edited on 10-22-2008 by woody in ob]

fishbuck - 10-22-2008 at 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Woooosh
He got out before dark apparently.

"Then what's the point of going!?" Nightbuck

Bruce R Leech - 10-22-2008 at 12:54 PM

he would not have wrote that if he would have tripped on one of those piles of dead bodes :lol:

tjBill - 10-22-2008 at 01:18 PM

I Love Tijuana :bounce:

fishbuck - 10-22-2008 at 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bruce R Leech
he would not have wrote that if he would have tripped on one of those piles of dead bodes :lol:

Ya, there are piles of them everywhere. Seriously though you could not find any if you were looking.

toneart - 10-22-2008 at 04:46 PM

What an insipid article.

movinguy - 10-22-2008 at 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bruce R Leech
he would not have wrote that if he would have tripped on one of those piles of dead bodes :lol:

So far there has been a moratorium on anyone attending mass or eating a churro . . . :yes:

fdt - 10-22-2008 at 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaNews
Apparently the siesta is alive and well, as these places rent rooms by the hour.

Tijuana me hace feliz!

Ken Cooke - 10-22-2008 at 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tjBill
I Love Tijuana :bounce:

I still love Tijuana. No matter how bad the rep, I'll still visit there if I have the time off from work. I'll be there early next month.

duke62 - 10-22-2008 at 11:19 PM

That story cracked me up.

Is there an unrated version with Rick Steves narrating what happened after this: " Bars that feel like saloons come with cheap prostitutes wearing down their stiletto heels at the doors. Apparently the siesta is alive and well, as these places rent rooms by the hour. (There are also plenty of decent places — without company for hire in the lobbies — renting $40 rooms on or near Revolution Avenue." PBS may want to check out his expense account.

Viva TJ

Bajafun777 - 10-22-2008 at 11:48 PM

Well, I have never heard such unfair, silly, unrealistic view

---duke62 there are no bars with cheap prostitutes as they have a union and are in fact the real "cartel bosses" running the business in T.J. :dudette:

Later---bajafun777

fishbuck - 10-23-2008 at 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajafun777
Well, I have never heard such unfair, silly, unrealistic view

---duke62 there are no bars with cheap prostitutes as they have a union and are in fact the real "cartel bosses" running the business in T.J. :dudette:

Later---bajafun777

Well, I can see that you all clearly need to go on the Nightbuck tour. His description is pretty accurate if you are willing to wonder around after midnight.
He forgot to add that everyone you pass on the street will try to sell you cocaine including the hotdog stand hombre and the TJ zebra! $20.
I can't tell you about the quality because I don't like coke.
But some of the cheap prostitutes are beautiful. That's if you think $100 is cheap. I can afford it.

[Edited on 10-23-2008 by fishbuck]

wilderone - 10-24-2008 at 08:27 AM

Seems like he tried to write his story to fit his biased stereotype. If he wanted to write something good about TJ, there's plenty - but he didn't look far or deep enough. Jumping beans? oh please. Not worthy of a world traveler to write that about TJ. Boo.

nancyinpdx - 1-25-2009 at 02:58 AM

I, too, thought his story was insipid and extremely shallow, especially considering who he is. My respect for him just died and so has his credibility.

Woooosh - 1-25-2009 at 11:49 AM

So much has changed since october 2008. None of it for the better. None of it a myth or over-exaggeration. What has happenend, has happened and will continue to happen because there is no one and nothing to stop it from continuing it's death sprial.

Some people, as always, are looking to revise the past. The Pope himself just pardoned a Bishop who had maintained all these years that Jews weren't ever killed in gas chambers during WWII. IMHO revisionists are the worst- because they prevent us from learning from past mistakes and the missed opportunities.

I'm looking at the future...

What happens now that the Peso has lost nearly half it's value? Will it totally collapse again? What happens to the average Mexican when/if inflation skyrockets? What's in store for the 10,000 Americans who live here?

PeMex output is down 8% and the price of a barrel of oil is down by more than half. What money will Mexico have to keep the Peso propped up? How will Mexico pay for the social systems already in place- let alone the ones they are promising to expand?

What will Mexico look and feel like if the gov't fails under the weight of it's own corruption. How will Mexico protect it's people? Will Mexico go the way of Icelandia?

What will the USA do if Mexico does fail? How will it control the panic and violence as people flee north?

What will Rosarito Beach look like after another year of no tourist business?How can Mexico get is business owners to come out of hiding from kidnappers and return to Mexico to re-open their businesses?

What will the Mexican construction workers do to support their families now that all major projects have been scaled back or stopped for now. Can the real estate market recover here at all while the market in the USA is still floundering?

Will the "Stewmaker of Ensenada" find work at a prison soup kitchen?