Sorry Scenario

Tijuana merchants and shopkeepers along the formerly well-trodden route between the San Ysidro border crossing and the main drag, Revolución, are calling on local authorities to rid the area of freelance purveyors of tacos, pancakes, churros, burritos, and Chiclets as well as a phalanx of loiterers who have saturated the location.

Licensed merchants, according to the daily Frontera, feel that these members of the “informal” economy are another reason that tourists won’t come to TJ. Aggressive and insistent windshield-washers who comb the traffic lanes, “Marias" (the Indian women who hawk Chiclets), and child beggars who juggle badly are annoying tourists, opine some, and the sorry scenario of abject poverty and desperation makes for a bad image of the country.

A more recent plea in Frontera called for the cessation of nocturnal urination in the nooks and crannies of the pedestrian bridges along the route. Most alarming, according to Frontera, are the growing masses of small children who eat, sleep, and live within a few yards of la linea.