San Diego Metropolitan - The Connection

In November 1997, Sam Marasco was praised in this column as a “hero of the border” for his Gateway of the Americas project, which now is known as Las Americas. The effort looked terrific and Mexican officials were quoted as commenting on its great potential. It seemed then everyone was a booster and Marasco was truly in tune with Mexico. Time proved otherwise.

The original presentation was that San Ysidro land, formerly housing the commercial port of entry vacated when the operation was moved to Otay Mesa, would be converted into “hundreds of thousands of square feet of new shopping and entertainment, a hotel and office complex. The International Gateway of the Americas will become a significant destination, symbolizing the integration of the twin cities of San Diego and Tijuana.” And on the Mexico side, Gateway of the Americas would transform the “conflictive and infamous Zona Norte (Tijuana’s seedy section at the foot of Revolucion Avenue) into a first class, attractive tourism center.” Twin projects were to be connected by a world-class pedestrian bridge over the border and Tijuana River.

Within months of the article’s publication, the vision began to change — the bridge would be kept, and the shopping center built on the U.S. side, but slowly the plans for developing the Tijuana side began to fade. Not necessarily Marasco’s fault, it was more likely due to financing availability in Mexico. Nonetheless, without its retail part of the “twin” project, it was obvious Mexico would say “no” to the bridge.

Here is where cultural knowledge comes into play — knowing they would say no and why. It’s really quite simple: constructing a major commercial center with stores, restaurants, theaters, hotel and business offices on the U.S. side would deposit thousands of visitors at that center where those merchants would have the first shot at their wallets. Only after this exposure would visitors cross into Tijuana, where they would be deposited into a seedy part of the old downtown. As bleak as the present pedestrian border crossing is at San Ysidro, Mexican merchants have no competition from the U.S. and visitors can cross and spend in Tijuana without families having to walk through the infamous Zona Norte red light district.

Had the importance of the Tijuana “twin” commercial center and redevelopment of the seedy neighborhood been understood as the key to acceptance of a binational bridge, the U.S. commercial project now in existence might have fared better. Instead, it is a factory outlet center that took tenants and business from the factory outlet center directly across the street.

More than five years after I wrote on Marasco’s plans, it was announced that Tijuana will agree to the bridge with the commitment of the twin center and area redevelopment. Now of course, it remains to be seen if the vision will become reality and how many more years it will take.

Marasco’s Las Americas is but one case. At least in this case, it seems the lesson, though delayed, was learned.

Too often when the San Diego region proposes a project needing cooperation from Tijuana or Mexico, one which is clearly advantageous to San Diego, it appears publicly that little to no consideration is given as to what, if any, advantages it may have to our neighbor. If either through no action, or after a period the answer is “no,” our local media, frequently led by The San Diego Union-Tribune, is apt to label Mexico “uncooperative.”

Remember TwinPorts, the San Diego scheme to build an airport at the border adjacent to the Tijuana airport? The San Diego delegation got off to an immediate wrong start in Mexico City. Not knowing the political culture, they virtually started a turf war between three federal ministries on just the first visit. It was downhill from there, getting worse by one cultural mistake after another, including ignoring what they were trying to say to us: It’s a bad idea.

We can only hope that Las Americas learn a lesson and that they do truly plan to build out the twin center in Tijuana, and that this is not another case of saying so to get the bridge built first, and “we’ll see about the rest later.” That’s an approach that just won’t work.

Patrick Osio Jr. can be reached by e-mail at posiojr@aol.com.