I’m back in Mérida now, and the first thing I want to share on my little blog has nothing to do with the city’s beauty, its culture or the lovely people, including the friends I’ve been reconnecting with this week. No restaurant reviews follow. No remarks about the weather, or tourism, or even the house we’re building.
The first thing I want to tell you is that the scary hole in the sidewalk outside the Comex on 60 and 47 is still there. Yes, this treacherous gap, which seems like a very easy repair job, remains unfixed. If you’re walking north on 60, and you see Santa Ana park up ahead, don’t let images of Mary’s panuchos dance too vividly in your head. You might not notice a shocking jagged gap in the sidewalk, right on this very busy street corner, ready to pull you in and inflict some serious injuries. In a city where the sidewalks are notoriously bad, this little road hazard is particularly egregious.
First reported by this blogger over two years ago, this pedestrian menace remains unchanged. In fact, now I see the pothole has a sister a few meters down 60. It’s filled almost to the top with garbage, which at least will cushion your ankle should you choose to twist it there instead. The gap outside Comex offers no such relief to pedestrians who are so unfortunate. The city has painted the facades of so many buildings on this block, and the streets have been replaced with that fake cobblestone, but no one seems to feel responsible for the huge chunk of concrete that is missing right here.
As we approached this street corner, the angle of the sidewalk fooled us, and our hearts fluttered with joy with the hope that yes! The sidewalk is fixed! Closer inspection brought bitter disappointment. The fact that from the distance the gap is practically undetectable makes it all the more insidious. I would have taken a photo of it, but I had a nagging feeling that the hole would have sucked my camera phone into the bowels of hell. If I had merely stared too long into the hole, I don’t wonder that my very soul would have been snatched and plunged into the abyss. So I quickly averted my gaze and focused again on Mary’s panuchos.
This blogger will continue to monitor the situation and report to the world the hazards of 47 and 60. Every trip here will commence with instructions to the taxi driver: Take me to the Comex on Santa Ana Park! I want to see the sidewalk! And only then, will I be able to sleep.
C’mon, I’ve seen a pothole in Atlanta GA 10 feet deep and 8 feet across! There for several years, it was centered on the sidewalk, so a stroll on a dark evening on this street without street lights could get you a free ride to the hospital if someone found you without falling on top of you.
It’s those tiny, easy-to-miss in broad daylight potholes that are more insidious. Especially when they’re sitting between store facades that have just been renovated and streets that have been repaved.
Lee – You know what this screams in “America”…LAWSUIT!
I have a friend who swears he witnessed a woman fake a fall in a supermarket today.
Sounds like they are not “litigation” savvy in Merida…yet.
The Fairfield County Business Journal lists lawsuits in the courts — Stop & Shop, slip-and-fall, $10,000. Shop Rite, slip-and-fall, $12,000. Shaw’s Supermarket, slip-and-fall, $10,000. And so on.
Lawsuits are not common in Mexico. Most everyone tries to avoid the court system entirely if in any way humanly possible. Lawsuits can literally drag out for years and years. And come back to hurt you.
Unfortunately, defective infrastructure is a fact of life in Mexico. You really have to watch out for yourself all the time. Reporting problems is certainly encouraged, but it may not be advisable to hold your breath waiting for a fast response.
This particular broken cement hole has been like that for quite a while. There are plenty of others to enjoy if this one gets fixed! 🙂
I just saw one on 66 today that made me feel silly for making the one on 60 seem insignificant. It was sooo big, though, it may have been actually safer, because who would ever not see that one? Unless of course it’s under water and someone thinks it’s safe to splash in puddles.
In one of the most transited areas of the city by visitors, it’s an embarrassing shame. Perhaps it has not been fixed because no one has been lost to the abyss, or it has not been reported repeatedly. The municipal government makes it easy to file a complaint online (now done, btw), via telephone, and there is a citizens forum every other Wednesday (next tomorrow the 14th). Everything is in Spanish, but I bet that if a bunch of vocal expats showed up or sent messages in Google-Spanish they would get some attention. Let’s Imagine what might happen!
Power to the people! I’m so happy that my little tongue-in-cheek rant actually drew some serious attention to something that would not be so funny if it was your ankle that got turned.
Or a more elderly person who could break their hip…..
Yes, it’s serious indeed.