Thanks to Marshall Ellingson and Miguel Ramirez
Our state Road Education Week ended on Friday with the purpose of raising awareness of accident prevention and its consequences. The event took place in front of City Hall in San Jose with the presence of several preschool and elementary level students learning about road culture as pedestrians, passengers, and drivers.
Mayor Luis Armando Diaz met with US General Consul Ronald J Kramer in Cabo this week. The meeting was aimed at strengthening bonds between the US and Mexico and maintaining Los Cabos as a peaceful destination.
Our popular beaches of Palmilla, El Medano, and Chileno are awaiting certification by the National Water Commission after the last of 12 water samples was taken to measure water quality and beach condition. Our local culture has transformed over the years to a higher awareness of respect for maintaining our treasured beaches.
Public lighting has begun to be restored in the stretch of highway between downtown San Jose and the international airport. With an investment of over 400, 000 pesos the goal is to decrease the number of vehicle and pedestrian accidents.
Ronald J. Kramer United States Consul, acknowledged Los Cabos as a premier tourist destination for Americans, still safe and calm. In a visit in which he met authorities as well as business people, he declared that to The United States it is of the most importance to strengthen ties with Los Cabos, due to the importance of its economic growth and development. He also explained there are several cultural projects to be set with local authorities. He showed interest and support in the petition to establish a USA Consulate Office in La Paz or here in Los Cabos.
The second Los Cabos Touristic Market Place (Tianguis TurÃstico) was inaugurated at the Hilton Hotel. Executives of local DMC Tropical Incentives, Local Authorities and several service providers gave a warm welcome to this opening as part of the Tropical Top Programs. The event was led by José Manuel Gonzalez Arreola, Municipal Tourism Director; Arturo Aguirre, Tropical Incentives C.E.O.; Mario Hernandez, Tropical Incentives Director and Gabriela Van Deer Lee, Hilton Hotel’s Sales Director. There were 70 companies participating in this event to buy and sell Los Cabos Touristic services and facilities, from the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
With the economical contribution of Trisha Pacholsky and the donation of space of land from the municipality, construction of a skating rink in San Jose del Cabo will commence, according to Alejandro Rosas Caedo, Constructions Department Director, during a meeting in which Mayor Luis Armando Diaz and Trisha Pacholsky witnessed the presentation of the project to be set on Colonia 8 de Octubre. Ms. Pacholsky announced also she will look after some other persons and companies to sponsor this skating rink.
State & Local News – week of June 3rd, 2007
Thanks to Marshall Ellingson
Los Cabos played host to the third National Clean Beach Encounter this week. The Clean Beach project began in 2003 as a federal initiative with the idea of monitoring Mexican recreational beaches to inform users of the level of cleanliness.
Mayor Luis Armando Diaz is confident that our Supreme Court will rule in favor of our community regarding ownership of a lot beside the Palmilla beach. The lot was originally donated by the Gonzalez family for the benefit of our community but then was inexplicably sold a few years back by the federal government to the development.
Bad odors continue to emanate from the water treatment plant in downtown San Jose. City Hall is negotiating with plant owners Fonatur, the National Tourism Fund, to transfer ownership to our municipality. A new tourist corridor bypass highway has been approved and is set to be carried out in 2008. The new highway will consist of a 37-kilometer road starting from the airport road toll booth in San Jose and ending at the highway to Todo Santos in Cabo San Lucas.
State & Local News – week of May 27th, 2007
We have our first Tropical Depression of the 2007 Season. TD1E has formed some 685 miles SSE of Cabo San Lucas and is moving due west and should not pose any threat to land. The system is forecast to become the first Tropical Cyclone (TS Alvin) of the year late today or early tomorrow. We will continue to track this storm with regular updates. Look for our famous Eastern Pacific Hurricane Watch article to be updated every other Tuesday through July and every week thereafter, through the end of the Hurricane Season on Oct 31, 2007.
State & Local News – week of May 13th, 2007:
Thanks to Marshall Ellingson & Miguel Ramirez
One of the first œcasualties due to the publication of the Official Standard “ 029 (NOM 029) had occurred affecting a proposed investment of more than 200 million dollars a corporate group was about to start in East Cape, involving three hotels, golf courses, and several condominiums covering 230 hectares between Los Barriles and Buena Vista has unfortunately been withdrawn. This according to Carlos Gage Francois, former President of Los Cabos Chamber of Commerce He said that the main reason for this action was that the investment group was afraid to risk their investment based on the future of sport fishing for their guests. See or Carlos Gage is also trying to make an appeal to all important and most representative business people to join efforts and let the federal authorities, including President Felipe Calderon, that this new ruling will be very negative to our state’s economy and development.
State and Municipal authorities held a progress meeting in La Paz, In order to review next month’s gathering in Los Cabos of the Third National Clean Beaches Congress. Certification of Playas El Médano, Chileno and Palmilla is expected, this according to Javier Ontiveros Fabian, Municipal Director of the Federal Zone He also said that he expects all Federal & State Departments, like the Water Commission, Federal Environment Protection Attorney, Fishing, Agricultural and Natural Resources Secretariat, the Mexican Navy, among others, to participate
On the evening of May 15th, the Municipal Civil Protection Council formally began work on the Early Alert System (SIAT) for the hurricane and tropical storm season 2007, in which 14 weather phenomena are forecasted, this according to . Ismael Rodriguez, Civil Protection Training Coordinator. He explained that the SIAT is intended to have an organized response from local, state, and federal authorities, as well as to the general public to prevent as much damage as possible before, during, and after a severe storm. The main differences to last year’s Civil Protection plan are, instead of focusing on the external cloud walls they will watch for an area where winds will exceed 34 knots. Two scales will be used to measure; the Saffir-Simpson, to approximate the arrival time, and a wind circulation scale that measures the departure time of the storm.
May 12th, 13th and 14th, a “nautical demonstration†took place… with the participation of more than 150 multiple sized sport fishing boats with banners and signs. They departed from the Cabo San Lucas main dock and went around the bay, to protest the Mexican Official Standard, which came into effect on May 15, and is considered very harmful to sport fishing species like marlin, mahi-mahi, wahoo, and other fish. Sportfishing promoters, captains, citizens, and boat owners participated in this demonstration in order to draw the attention of federal authorities over the effect this standard will have for our sportfishing community – one of the most economically important in our Baja Sur state. The main demand is not only on the fishing of the shark, proposed in this Standard, but in the reduction to 25 miles from shore to sport fishing, allowing huge commercial fishing vessels with enormous nets and thousands of hooks that could catch all kinds of species. It looks like it will be easier for foreigners to stay longer in Mexico to promote tourism and business investment. Tourists would automatically get permission to stay for 180 days, and the process to get visas to stay for years would be fast-tracked. Under the present rules, most tourists are given up to 90 days to stay in Mexico and have to go to a special office to get that extended. “I’m convinced in tourism because it’s the economic activity that going to Mexico the most profit and generate the most jobs,” Mexican President Felipe Calderón has said.
After seven days of camping at Puerto Los Cabos in demonstration to protect the San Jose del Cabo estuary, Greenpeace organization members obtained from Grupo Questro, the main developer of the new marina, a formal commitment to avoid an eventual flood of sea salt water into the estuary that could damage it. Once this agreement was reached, the activists lifted the “temporary office†they had installed. The presence of Greenpeace will be permanent in Los Cabos to closely watch and to promote care for our environment. Grupo Questro agreed to stop the marina opening for two to three weeks while proper and scientifically supported studies are released and analyzed by three specialists proposed by Greenpeace.