Re: Manifesto for rebuilding Cancun even better: Steve, Bran 1. CLEAN UP THE LAGOON As active Cancunenses we had try to make the lagoon look as it was 25 years ago with fresh clean water but until there is no a legal manner to prhibit the restaurants to trough their food and/or garbage into the lagoon and as long as the inspectors can make 5 time their salary receiving money from the restaurants, nothing will change. More to add, the lagoon water is very mis since Wilma, people throw a lot of garbage (from food to microwaves) plus the pieces of the docks that were destroy with Wilma. 2. EASY BEACH ACCESS BETWEEN EACH AND EVERY HOTEL Quintana Roo law says that every x number of KM you need to have a public access, the fact is that as time share develops, they want to have their guests "captive" in the resort so the time share companies are the nes that block by the street or the beaaqch (rocks, sun cahirs, etc) the free walking. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF HOTELS FROM THE BEACH Love this idea 4. PUBLIC RESTAURANT, BAR & ENTERTAINMENT ZONES ON SURFSIDE BEACHES "COCKTAIL ZONES" The greatest problrm here is the amount of taxes you have to pay to be in front of a beach, beach in Cancun is consider Federal Zone and therfore you need to pay like 4 different taxes if you want to build, use, make business, etc. This make almost impposible to have small bars or clubs on the ocean side. 5. PALM TREES I have to recognize that after Wilma the re-forestation in Cancun had been amazing, only from Km 1 to 4 of the HZ we have more than double palm trees than before Wilma. 8. BEACH RESTORATION This is a mayor concern and a lot of money to be expend in the comming months, the problem is that the hotels did not respect the 25 meters for the ocean that the constuction rule says, therfore they have cause that some places that use to have an extended beach is now gone. A good example is Presidente that was built 20 years ago according to the rules and therfore their beach and sand continue to increase. some people who have gone to Cancun and will never return because they were ripped off. That should be a problem of the past.
Ana, Thanks for your comments. I really would like more CancunCare.com posters to comment on the manifesto. Now is the time to discuss making the new Cancun the best it can possibly be. I'm glad to read about the re-forestation effort already taking place. I really hope they plant a row of palms on the beach as discussed earlier. As far as the "cocktail zones" on the beach I did not know about the four seperate taxes. That seems excessive for federal, public property. Perhaps Cancun should look at the beach bars as entertainment amenities and subsidize or negotiate to lower the fees and make it easier for an entrepreneur to open up a small liquor shack.
Sorry Marooned I really intended to post a lengthy comment on this one, but keep getting waylaid by other things. Most of the posts here I can reply off the cuff but this one I have to sit down and think for a while.... and it's a long time since I did that! I'll try and absorb everything in the next day or two and post my thoughts - it's a very valuable thread so keep bumping it. Hopefully we can email a link to the powers that be and although it might not make much difference it's worth having a go.
Ana, I was wondering what Restaurants dump garbage in the Lagoons I am aware of The Hotels and the sewage but Restaurants? wich ones ? I agree about the Ocean front Bars and Restaurants but as Ana stated these are all Federal Concessions and are rarely given. The Lagoons other problem is that the natural flow in and out of the ocean was closed off in several spots as well as Pok Ta Pok and Isla Dorada wich are manmade causing the Lagoon to Die or become basically a Cesspool Now they are doing the samething with Puerto Cancun and Isla Mujeres to the North . Another Tragedy is that the Garbage dump emties into the largest Lagoon and Mangroves in the Area contaminating Flora Fauna and Water it is a disgusting sight and I am continually amazed at how Man has been allowed to contaminate the environment and gets away with it. The problems with the beaches eroding started with Gilbert the Sheraton used to have a huge beach pre Gilbert and what little was left Emily and Wilma took El Presidente and all of the Hotels north of the Hyatt Regency have maintined the beaches in part because they are protected by Reefs, and the current that acually brought them sand from the South in all of the aformentioned hurricanes.
Main problem is that the ocean front land from km 1 to Brisas is almost full of hotels and 3 or 4 residencial streets, the few land without cnosruction is not longer in hands of FONATUR (Fomento Nacional Turistico) is from private owners that are waiting the right time or friend in goverment to get the permits and build new hotels or complex (as the Riu deal with Chacho) and make tons of profit, in the ther side the business man that want to rent an ocean view land have to deal first with an excesive rent, then with the permits for construction, selling liquor and parking space and then he have to pay the following taxes; predial (I do not know the translation) use of federal zone, % from profit of using the federal zone, extra tax for beeing open after midnight, IVA, etc. Up Date un #8 Beach Restoration- - - Today the restoration of the beach from Flamingo to Gran Caribe Real begun, the asociation of hotels rent some (dragas) and are taking the sand from the ocean where Wilma re-located it. The 2nd proyect began on January and they hire the people that "build" Dubay, it is a mega big draga and it is going to cost a fortune.
Draga is Dredging, Predial is property tax I am pretty sure that there is no Predial on Federal Concessions but they/ We are taxed up the Wazoo in every other way you can think of including Garbage Tax.
I was just speaking with My Husband about the reason that there are no Restaurants or Bars on the Beach. He Says that it is because Fonatur when Planning Cancun planned for Hotels only on the beach they planned for areas for Malls and areas for Restaurants and thats How Cancun was divided up What they I am sure never planned for was the quantity of Hotels and the general growth of Cancun in such a relatively short amount of time.
Please keep this thread on topic. There were two posts that were off-topic and that isn't going to be helpful if someone who can actually consider implementing part of the manifesto (planner, politician, architect, developer, hotel owner, tourism official, etc.) takes the time to read this thread. Steve, is it possible to delete these two posts that were off-topic (#14 and #15) to keep this manifesto focused and easier to read? The idea of this manifesto is to have an open discussion on improving Cancun. We all know how off-topic posts can kill an intelligent discussion. I agree that when Cancun was developed there was seperate zones for everything: hotels, shopping, restaurants, etc. Overall I think it was an excellent plan. If it weren't for FONATUR's success in Cancun other planned resorts like Cabo wouldn't even exist as they do today. Cancun grew much faster and denser than the planners had imagined. For the most part it is great for vacationers because there are so many choices for hotels, tours, restaurants, activities, shopping, etc. The bad part is that whoever was in charge didn't have the discipline to control the rapid growth and now Cancun has to reinvent itself to some degree. The lagoon is a cess pool and this needs to be addressed immediately. In fact, I'm not even sure that restaurants should reopen along the lagoon. Really, who wants to eat over that nastiness anyway. To me it is quite simple: either abandon the lagoon and don't have any businesses operating there, or clean up and improve the lagoon (and consider opening it up to the ocean via several canals) and make it an asset. The worse thing to do is to continue to operate businesses in the lagoon and continue to pollute it at the same time. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that one day the lagoon will be so polluted and smelly no one will want to get within 50 yards of it and that is detrimental since Cancun is a very narrow resort island. In effect the continued pollution of the lagoon could impact the viability of Cancun as a world class resort. Imagine waking up in your $300 per night hotel room and walking down to the boulevard to get some breakfast and smelling a putrid garbage dump/sewer. One day all of Cancun could smell like this. The time to do something about it is now. Another thought is to take a look at what the first-time tourist sees in Cancun upon his or her arrival. The airport is really nice for the most part and the drive to the hotel zone becomes more scenic the closer one gets to the south end of the hotel zone. Somewhere in between there is a disconnect. I've seen trashed-out areas and unplanned roadside development immediately after exiting the airport. First impressions are so important. It is not a long drive from the airport to the south end of the hotel zone and most of the problems are within a mile of the airport. If you can make the drive from the airport to the entry of the hotel zone as attractive as possible it will really heighten the experience of the arriving tourist. We all know how attractive the hotel zone is once you are there. It is simple to control what the tourist sees upon arriving in Cancun since practically everyone goes directly from the airport to their hotel via the south entrance to the hotel zone. Since that first impression is so controlled why not make it as good as it can be? I'm taking about landscaping, trash pickup, palm trees, controlled roadside construction, signage control, etc. Basically I'm saying let's make the portal to paradise perfect.
