BajaNomad

how to attract tourists to Rosarito....

bajabound2005 - 1-2-2009 at 10:26 PM

Rosarito Beach begins issuing bilingual citations

3:54 PM, January 2, 2009

If there's one thing visitors to Rosarito Beach no longer have to worry about -- if the plan is implemented smoothly -- it's confusion regarding traffic citations issued by local police.

The long-popular haven for surfers, fishermen and other outdoors enthusiasts is largely deserted these days because of the unrelenting war between drug cartels throughout northern Baja California.
Hugo Torres, mayor of Rosarito Beach, has taken many steps to alleviate visitors' fears. He has expelled corrupt officers, bolstered police ranks and created a citizens' watch group and a special tourist police force.

The latest measure, now in effect, is the issuing of bilingual traffic tickets. The city also now allows visitors the option of paying fines by mail. This is designed to make tourists feel less intimidated by police officers when they're pulled over.

"Before it was necessary to follow an officer to a station to pay the fine," Torres said. "Now in most cases they can simply be mailed in."
On concerns about bribery, Torres added, "A traffic fine can never be paid directly to an officer, and we ask that people report to us the name and badge number of any officer that requests that they do so, or any that does not offer them the option of receiving a bilingual ticket."

Bilingual tickets are being issued by tourist police and regular city police to motorists who commit an infraction within city jurisdiction. The tickets list amounts owed for each offense and instructions for paying by mail.

Motorists can still appeal a ticket.

Bilingual tickets are strictly limited to within Rosarito Beach city limits and may not apply on the transpeninsular highway, where state or federal police have jurisdiction.

Laura Wong, president of the Rosarito Convention & Visitors Bureau, has stressed that the drug-related killings generally involve rivals and occur well beyond tourist zones late at night.

Wong also reminds tourists that last year's spring break, Memorial Day and July 4 periods, as well as the Rosarito-to-Ensenada bike ride, "went smoothly and without any serious incident involving any of our many visitors."

Sharksbaja - 1-2-2009 at 10:35 PM

Brilliant! That ought to keep some more folks away. It instills the notion that Gringos break many traffic laws. Another great idea Mr Mayor. Must be a new program to help coffers and pockets during the current recession.
Very clever, just write everyone a ticket, someone is bound to mail it in.:bounce:

Do they still charge a landing fee for cruise line passengers offboarding in Ensenada?

[Edited on 1-3-2009 by Sharksbaja]

bajabound2005 - 1-2-2009 at 10:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Sharksbaja
Do they still charge a landing fee for cruise line passengers offboarding in Ensenada?


Nope, after a few months, that got the AX! (At least that's my understanding from the newspapers!)

Woooosh - 1-3-2009 at 09:57 AM

Where to start on this one...

Mayor Torres himself has stated that if he only owned a taco stand, instead of the Rosarito Beach Hotel and Condos, he would have bailed out of town for his own safety already.

Just putting the same cops in those new white "tourist police" cars doesn't make them toursit friendly. I haven't run into one that even speaks english. I can't even get them to make eye contact- let alone engage a tourist to offer assistance. IMHO- they probably pay the shift commander extra every shift to get to patrol in the relative safety of a "toursit police" car that day- out of the cross-hairs of the narcos.

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago a fellow nomad got shook down in Rosarito Beach for a $40 bribe- even with an Army guy standing guard over them? Why even bother asking people to mail a fine? How many peole are really going to mail money back to mexico once they get stateside. Last year it took six months for a friends Christmas card to get to me by Mexican mail. I'll bet opening those "taffic fine enclosed" envelopes and stealing the cash at the post office will be the next cherry job.

... and finally- The FBI recently stated that for the first time innocent Americans (with no ties to the drug trade) were being targeted for extortions and kidnappings in Baja Norte. Who you gonna believe? No it's not the narcos- it's a whole different group of thugs working under Mr. Three Letters. So I guess saying Americana aren't the victims of narco crimes is true- it's just not complete because nacos are only half the problem.

Of course spring break and the holidays went fairly smoothly. Crowd control is easy when there are no crowds. But there were shootings and the killing of innocent Mexicans and children on the main boulevard in Rosarito.

Why do they even bother making public satements like this at all? The major Rosarito Beach club owner- Mr Iggy- who used to pay for thelions share of Rosarito Beach marketing is still stateside hiding from the kidnappers (not the narcos...)

No one region can claim safety for tourists these days. It will happen slowly all over Mexico once the will to make the very hard decsions needed for improvement are made.

[Edited on 1-3-2009 by Woooosh]

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 10:12 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Last year it took six months for a friends Christmas card to get to me by Mexican mail. I'll bet opening those "taffic fine enclosed" envelopes and stealing the cash at the post office will be the next cherry job.



I see your point and mostly agree. As a sidenote, I was talking with the owner of a Postal Annex in San Ysidro a while back and she told me about a large box in her back room used for mail to the TJ PD. It was paid fines. The city picks them up in San Ysidro and there are, according to the owner, lots of them, probably all checks.
We USA trained drivers arn't used to ignoring traffic fines and unless one is confident that he will never return, the fine will probably get paid. The computer has us well trained.

Woooosh - 1-3-2009 at 10:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Last year it took six months for a friends Christmas card to get to me by Mexican mail. I'll bet opening those "taffic fine enclosed" envelopes and stealing the cash at the post office will be the next cherry job.



I see your point and mostly agree. As a sidenote, I was talking with the owner of a Postal Annex in San Ysidro a while back and she told me about a large box in her back room used for mail to the TJ PD. It was paid fines. The city picks them up in San Ysidro and there are, according to the owner, lots of them, probably all checks.
We USA trained drivers arn't used to ignoring traffic fines and unless one is confident that he will never return, the fine will probably get paid. The computer has us well trained.


Giving my bank account information (on a check) to the mexcan police seems just plain stupid to me. Talk about giving them everything they need to victimize you. If you pay in cash and it doesn't make it all the way to the police station- how could you ever prove you paid? I doubt they have a computer system to track traffic tickets anyway- they are very very far behind in basic technology.

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 12:11 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Giving my bank account information (on a check) to the mexcan police seems just plain stupid to me. Talk about giving them everything they need to victimize you.


Again, I agree. How about a money order? It may be inconvenient but, it's not something you'll have to do too often, hopefully..

woody with a view - 1-3-2009 at 12:13 PM

i remember reading that mexico city had JUST STARTED to keep track of all cell phone numbers and their owners??????? i'm with Whooosh..... "take me to your leader!":lol:

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 12:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by woody in ob
i remember reading that mexico city had JUST STARTED to keep track of all cell phone numbers and their owners??????? i'm with Whooosh..... "take me to your leader!":lol:


Wouldn't the cell phone companys already have that info?

woody with a view - 1-3-2009 at 12:17 PM

one would think. apparently they are just now centralizing the info, you know, 20 years after the first one came to town.

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 12:24 PM

All of this reminds me of a far back time when there were parking meters in Ensenada. I got a parking ticket, went downtown and paid it. The paper cost more than the fine.
Later, I mentioned this to a lawyer buddy and he looked at me like I was insane.
"You actually paid for a parking ticket? Nobody pays for a parking ticket. Who did you pay? Why? This is incredible. Is this a joke?"
As I learned in time, most used the meters to straighten out their bumper after a hit 'n run.

Oh well, just a story of a different time.

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 12:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by woody in ob
one would think. apparently they are just now centralizing the info, you know, 20 years after the first one came to town.


Oh well...The government only does what Carlos Slim allows them to do.

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 12:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by soulpatch
What would get me to return to Rosarito Beach, which my wife and I used to love to daytrip to often, would be to see corrupt cops, kidnappers and narcos hanging from the overpass heading south into town.


It would look like a Piņata store. Good idea.

Attraction, what attraction?

Dave - 1-3-2009 at 01:11 PM

Excuse me, but even without the violence and police corruption why would anyone consider Rosarito as a destination? A taco at Yaqui's or drink till you throw up at Iggy's?... Then what?

Rosarito is and will always be a s#^!hole.

DENNIS - 1-3-2009 at 01:48 PM

Has anybody ever counted the stop signs on I think it's Juarez, the main drag? I mean the real ones, not the invizible ones.

The Gull - 1-3-2009 at 02:43 PM

The invizable ones are killers.

Woooosh - 1-3-2009 at 02:59 PM

Geesh... as critical as I am about Rosarito Beach even I've never called it a sh**hole. A Snakepit maybe, but not that.

sorry- I though the censoring was automatic.

[Edited on 1-3-2009 by Woooosh]

On second thought- everytime it rains the sewers bubble-up on my street and all the "agua chocolate" runs down the street and directly into theocean. Maybe you are right.

[Edited on 1-3-2009 by Woooosh]

Bajahowodd - 1-3-2009 at 03:42 PM

Then everyone head to Ensenada!

OK, round two

Dave - 1-3-2009 at 04:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bajahowodd
Then everyone head to Ensenada!


While certainly a huge improvement over Rosarito again I ask, what's the big attraction? As a tourist destination, what does Ensenada offer over, say... San Diego?

Can understand why expats would live here but have yet to figure out why, with the exception of drunken teenagers, why anyone would consider TJ, Rosarito or Ensenada on a 'must see' list.

Esplain please.

Barry A. - 1-3-2009 at 05:29 PM

Dave------Please don't take offense, but if you don't know then I can't explain it. I spent some of the most enjoyable days and nights in all 3 of those towns back in the late 50's, 60's, and beyond to this day.

There is just a flavor to them that cannot be duplicated in the USA. I feel similarly about Mexicali and Tacate, and spent many days in them, also. To me they all are magical places, but I cannot explain why. I lived for 43 years just 11 miles from the Border, 30 years in Coronado, and 13 years in El Centro, and spent lots of time in all those towns.

I admit they are a little "rough" now, but I still love them.

Barry

Pescador - 1-4-2009 at 09:55 AM

After spending 9 months last year in Baja Sur, we crossed at Tecate and immediately knew we were in another country. There was a whole different atmosphere and you could sort of relax while driving and we noticed that all of the road signs were placed far enough from the road that they were not hit by every truck going by, plus all of the other signs of civilization. When we stopped in Algodones to get some prescriptions, we noticed the music, the smells, the laughter, the dirt, the vehicle exhaust, and we both just smiled at each other and said, yep, we are back home.

fishingmako - 1-4-2009 at 03:23 PM

I agree with Barry, I spent a lot of my life tripping around all these same places, there is absolutely no duplication to the USA there is just something magical that can't be explained.
Although things have and are changing at a very rapid pace they will never be the same and I really hate to say it but it will get a lot worse, there is no way of bringing back the past, Big corperations etc. have taken over, Greed is very powerful and they don't care. It just seems a shame to watch all this happening, and when the economy gets on its feet it will pick up, construction and all other things many fold. you will see price go to a unbelievable heigth, you wiil not be able to afford to do a whole lot in GOOD OLD MEXICO.