Tijuana´s city historian, Mario Ortiz Villacorta of the Museo del Trompo, criticized city hall last week for not doing more to preserve the older parts of the border metropolis; specifically, the district known as El Centro, which runs through Avenida Revolución, the main tourist drag. Ortiz is calling for a rescue of streets and buildings, which in many cases have been completely abandoned.

“It will require a big investment in money and effort to do it all,” he said in an interview Tijuana’s Frontera newspaper. Inside the El Centro district are the notorious Zona Norte nightclubs, which Ortiz referred to as “a frightening spectacle for tourists because of the proliferation of places where prostitution is practiced, where assaults occur, and where indigents sleep in the streets.”

In recent years, new, wider sidewalks have been added to Revolución and parts of the nightclub district, creating a more spacious, pedestrian-friendly environment, and improvements have been made in the sewer system. Recently, several older budget hotels in the Zona Norte along Calle Artículo 123 (First St.), across from Plaza Santa Cecilia, have undergone face-lifts and interior remodeling.