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Lisa gets it wrong again


HarryB

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Lake reporter claims Ajijic delegado too busy campaining to fix skate park. The truth is Juan Ramon had to resign his position in order to be able to run for his position. Any action on his part during the 4 day campaign would be seen as illegal campaigning .

 

Juan Ramon several months ago asked Chapala to fill in the skatepark bowl and cement over it and put another type skate trick for the kids. He is totally dependent on Chapala to get the job done.

And as for the junk cars, he has sent letters to offenders and gone door to door to get them voluntarily removed. To get them towed, he has to rely on Transito officers to get it done. 

 

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He got a junk car handled in our neighborhood, thanks Juan.

That highly vandalized skate park is a magnet for taggers and vandals to the Ajijic Malecon.  The tagging radiates out from it.  Among other things, all that paint on the skating surfaces really compromises its intended use.  It should be either fenced and supervised or torn down.  

 

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Maybe a little monitoring to see how much it is really used.  The "pit" was full of water, a great mosquito attraction, which is now full of dirt.  I agree we need something for the kids to do and a place to hang out.  Is this the right place?  I don't know.

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Operation Feed in SJC has rented a house turned it into a library and a meeting center, has 135 kids in English classes, a chess group, free eye glass exams, a scholarship program, etc.. Maybe something along these lines would be  money better spent.  Just an idea.

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10 minutes ago, mrsfiddlegirl said:

Maybe local artists could plan a mural for the skate park, involve the kids in the design and painting of it. In my experiences with these kinds of projects, kids tend to protect their place when they feel ownership. Just my 2 pesos.

Have you seen the skate park?

There are myriad "murals" all over the skate park now.  I imagine they feel ownership (to the max). Some of them are skillfully done.

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And most of them are ugly scrawled gang letters and some of the nicer murals have been defaced as well.  As well as around the basket ball courts.  Gangs are who are showing ownership of this area.

I continue to work on graffiti around town but I gave up on the Malecon until this blight and graffiti magnet is taken seriously and dealt with.  It was taking hours once or twice every week.

Others are welcome to volunteer.  I have 6 gallons of gray paint I'll be happy to give you.

Good luck.  Seems we are bent on making the same mistake about these skate parks as has been reported in the literature all around the world.

 

 

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2 hours ago, barcelonaman said:

why not ask the kids what they want?

did they want a skate area in the first place?

 

 

2 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

And most of them are ugly scrawled gang letters and some of the nicer murals have been defaced as well.  As well as around the basket ball courts.  Gangs are who are showing ownership of this area.

I continue to work on graffiti around town but I gave up on the Malecon until this blight and graffiti magnet is taken seriously and dealt with.  It was taking hours once or twice every week.

Others are welcome to volunteer.  I have 6 gallons of gray paint I'll be happy to give you.

Good luck.  Seems we are bent on making the same mistake about these skate parks as has been reported in the literature all around the world.

 

 

And maybe the kids like it covered in what some of you call 'graffiti'.  To them, it may be a beautiful piece of art.  If it keeps the kids off the street corners causing trouble and possibly doing drugs, then I say, let them paint it any way they like.  It doesn't bother me at all!

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Yes, the Chapala skate park was starting to look pretty ghettolicious, but it was totally repainted and all the graffiti removed about two weeks or so ago.  But of recently, I see the new graffiti starting to pop up again, little by little.  If they could just triple or quadruple the prices of those spray paints in the local tienditas, perhaps the graffiti blight, I meant to say art,  would be just too expensive to create.

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There are so many expats here, I cannot believe no one has the experience or even ideas to develop some thing like Operation feed. And asking the kids would be a great way to start.Kids have a lot of energy . How about a free soccer field, basketball, tennis, track, even baseball, bike club. etc. Get a moderator. Anyone abusing the area or throwing trash , isn't allowed to come anymore or had to clean up trash on some streets. What about kayaking or those with boats taking for a ride and explaining about boats. Maybe some one would like to learn to cook. I know that would be a big undertaking but look at the transformation of Tepehua.  You can just amuse yourself with a cell phone for so long.  This is certainly not an area where I have experience but maybe someone can start small. 

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 Since the driving force behind Operation Feed is not expats but a Mexican man who saw the need, developed it and maintains that effort to this day. He even started a restaurant to provide funds to help sustain it. Agustin from Viva Mexico is a remarkable man. Yes, expats help with money, labour and ideas but it was started by Mexican for Mexicans and Mexicans still provide the driving force.

If you want to help Operation Feed an enjoyable way is to eat at Viva Mexico now and then and meet Agustin. Of course you also donate or offer to help.

Maybe we should probably look to Mexican influence in what you are suggesting but they do no appear yet to have seen the need. Are you volunteering?

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Waaay back when the skate park was plunked smack in the central section of the Malecon, across from Abbeyfield and near the bandstand, I wondered what genius made the decision to locate it there where it would enjoy maximum visibility.  I've lived in a number of urban areas and am familiar with what happens to any public place where kids congregate and have access to spray cans.  The current situation was inevitable and is, I think, incurable.  The solution may be to relocate a skate park in a place where it's not on display to the public and the kids can deface the surface to the max. Kids are kids, and to expect a different outcome is unrealistic.

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The Ajijic skateboard park is badly positioned; I walk the malecon daily;  the skateboarders often careen onto the walking area.  Have seen a number of collisions and close calls.  It needs to be located in an area where there are no pedestrians adjacent to it.

There are kids play areas, exercise areas, picnic tables, but there are no game areas in the malecon park.  Here are concrete games that could be built in the current skateboard area.  The bathroom attendants could lend out game pieces after getting a deposit.  

concrete checkers.jpg

concrete chess park.jpg

concrete ping.jpg

concrete chess.jpg

concrete ping park.jpg

concrete board game ludo.jpg

concrete bag toss.jpg

concrete backgammon.jpg

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10 hours ago, suegarn said:

 

 

And maybe the kids like it covered in what some of you call 'graffiti'.  To them, it may be a beautiful piece of art.  If it keeps the kids off the street corners causing trouble and possibly doing drugs, then I say, let them paint it any way they like.  It doesn't bother me at all!

Well you got your wish, you have a giant gang billboard right in the middle of your Malecon.  Clearly a few of you like it so go down there and enjoy the blight.  And smell the dope smoke.

Ignorance is bliss for some.  Others have long since learned the connection of the gang signs that cover that park and figured it out.

Today's lesson:

http://www.oncentral.org/news/2012/03/06/know-your-graffiti-art-vandalism-or-gang-device/ 

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Juan put clorox in the skatepark bowl while it was the only thing he could do. The plan to fill it in and put another skateboard activity waits on Chapala to do. Some of the art is aspiring artists and has been highly regarded. I've talked to Hector about speaking to the gangs about not defacing the art. Likely this is Guads. I don't know the solution other than to ask the local gangs to police it and protect local art.

I've mentioned the 6 gallons of grey paint to juan , but, he has been too busy to get to it, but he will. He is trying to get the Transitos to remove the last of the junk cars before Easter.

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

Ignorance is bliss for some.  Others have long since learned the connection of the gang signs that cover that park and figured it out.

Many here are blistered, no?

Should the gangs be encouraged to paint, "WWJD?" or fish art?

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It definitely could be a real skate park but as experience has shown around the world that requires that access is controlled and supervised.

Otherwise you end up with a magnet for taggers, vandals and gangs.  Unfortunately, they don't confine it to the skate park as experience has shown here and elsewhere.

Which this one is.

One of the skatepark taggers tagged the new "Ajiic" letters within a few days of their installation.  Unsupervised skaters did a lot of damage to the benches around it.  Hopefully Canuck Bob's solution will cut down on that.

And the tagging is near constant next to it around the basketball courts.

Art this isn't.  And by and for "children" this isn't either.  

 

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