Parque Lázaro Cárdenas in Puerto Vallarta
July 28, 2007 marks the 1st anniversary of the Parque Lázaro Cárdenas as a parking lot. From October 2004 to July 2006, the 4 traditional parks of Puerto Vallarta were converted into parking lots by the city government. The authorities promoted a plan which would clean up and improve the parks, reduce traffic in the downtown area and solve the parking problem in the city center. None of these objectives have been realized.
The parks only provide shade at night and are little used in the day. The traffic in the downtown area is bad and getting worse. Parking remains a problem. Further, the income to the city is minimal. The street vendors who were removed from the traditional parks are still not relocated. The authorities continue with a plan, which has been approved and announced on several occasions, to relocate the vendors to the Island of Rio Cuale in an “Artisans Commercial Center.”
But the question of the parks is now past. We were never able to generate enough support to save them and they were lost.
Now the hillsides behind the city are being lost to excessive and legally questionable constructions. There are serious concerns about building permits, environmental impact reports, demand on services and yet more traffic. Even more alarming is a latent condition of structural damage which could result in property loss and personal risk.
In the campaign for mayor in the elections of July 2006, both major party candidates promoted the construction of a “Megalibramiento” (Beltway or Bypass) to be built in the mountains behind Puerto Vallarta from Ixtapa to Boca de Tomatlán. Although the specific route of this “megalibramiento” was never revealed, the portion from Ixtapa along the mountains has already been defined and construction along the side of the mountains above Coapinole can be seen.
While the discussion of building permits in the hills around Puerto Vallarta and the possibility of a “megalibramiento” in the mountains may seem in the future they are, in fact, being realized day by day. Most attention is currently focused on the Penninsula and Grand Venetian projects at the mouth of the Rio Pitillal and the Molino de Agua project along the Río Cuale. But there are numerous other projects which are currently under construction, being offered for sale or recently announced all of which will contribute to a fundamental change in the image, density and character of Puerto Vallarta.
In retrospect, the parks now provide perspective as to what is at stake in Puerto Vallarta. First, the parks. Then the hillsides. Then the mountains. And the shoreline will be converted into highrises. This is what is called “Acapulquización”. If the disregard for green areas and rate of high-density construction continues, this will probably occur in the next 3 years.
If the parks signaled the first step in a series of major changes in Puerto Vallarta, they also offer insight into what can be done if residents are not in favor of such radical changes. First, it was impossible to defend just one park. They all had to be defended …or they would all be lost. I still hear the remark, “I wanted Parque Lázaro Cárdenas to remain the same, but I really didn’t care that much for the other parks.” Since all 4 parks were included in a single vote in the City Council, the loss of Parque Lázaro Cárdenas was determined with the vote of the city council in October 2004. The successive losses of Hidalgo, Benito Juárez and Pitillal only confirmed the eventual loss of Lázaro Cárdenas. It will be the same with the mountains and shoreline.
Once there is a precedent of a 12-floor building in the center of Puerto Vallarta or a 30-floor condominium on the north beaches, others will follow. Second, all the authorities; federal, state and municipal; have made it clear that they either cannot or will not alter the present course of construction in the city. Questionably, the mayor has stated that he cannot change a decision made in a previous administration. Third, the public response of the residents of Puerto Vallarta to the current course of construction has been minimal, with a few exceptions. And Fourth, the private response of many residents of Puerto Vallarta has been one, initially, of disbelief and inconformity. Subsequently, the private response has changed to outrage or acceptance. It has seldom been made public.
Neither the law nor the authorities are proving to be timely or effective in bringing order to the building violations which are currently occurring in Puerto Vallarta. Public opinion is a recourse available to request the urgent attention that this matter requires. The Mexican Constitution (Art. 7) provides both Mexican citizens and foreigners the right to write and publish their opinions on any subject. While the rights of foreigners to voice opinion in México is clearly permitted, they should refrain from political comments. We encourage you to send a short letter to the local press in Vallarta by e-mail to express your personal opinion on the recent course of the development of the city.
On this anniversary of the loss of the traditional parks of gay Puerto Vallarta, we should reflect on the direction of the modernization program of the city government. The parks were but a first step in a much larger, unannounced series of changes that began in 2004. If the Grupo Ecológico had mentioned in 2005 the possible loss of the Island of the Rio Cuale to commercial development and the mountains above to condominium projects, we would have been classified as radical and extreme. What is your opinion now? What will Puerto Vallarta look like in the next 2 years if the changes that have occurred in the past 2 years continue?
July 28, 2006. A day to remember. And to realize that only the opinion of the local residents can influence the future. Or, through silence, will be responsible for the remainder of traditional Puerto Vallarta to be lost.