Tijuana ( ; ), is the
largest city of the Mexican
state of
Baja
California
, situated on
the U.S.-Mexico
border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego
, California
. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Mexico,
however, the westernmost population center is located in Isla Guadalupe
. Tijuana is considered by the Mexican
government to be the most dominant regional center in northwestern
Mexico.
According
to the 2005 census, the Tijuana metropolitan area was the
sixth-largest in Mexico, with a population of 1,483,992, and one of
the fastest growing cities in Mexico
.
Tijuana forms part of the
San Diego-Tijuana
Metropolitan Area, the total population of which has been
estimated to be just over 5 million in 2009, making it the
22nd
largest metropolitan area in the Americas and the largest
bi-national metropolitan area that is shared between US and Mexico.
It is estimated that the two border crossings in Tijuana account
for 300,000 daily border crossings.
History
The land where the city of Tijuana would be built was originally
inhabited by the
Kumeyaay, a tribe of
Yuman-speaking hunter-gatherers. Europeans
arrived in 1542, when the explorer
Juan RodrÃguez Cabrillo toured
the coastline of the area, which was later mapped in 1602 by
Sebastián VizcaÃno. In
1769,
Juan Crespà documented more
detailed information about the area that would be called the Valley
of Tijuana.
JunÃpero
Serra founded the first mission of Alta California
in San
Diego.
More
settlement of the area took place near the end of the mission era
when José MarÃa
EchendÃa, governor of the Baja California and Alta California, awarded a large land grant to Santiago Argüello in 1829.
This large cattle ranch, Rancho TÃa Juana ("Aunt Jane Ranch"),
covered .
In 1848,
as a result of the Mexican-American
War with the United States, Mexico lost all of Alta California.The majority of the 1,000 families living in Alta
California stayed there, and the rest went south back into
Mexico.
Because of this Tijuana gained a different appearance and reason on
the International Border. The area was populated by ranches. After
the Mexican American War, Tijuana developed a new social economic
structure, as a consequence of the new border line the Valley of
Tijuana acquired different uses. That were farming, livestock
grazing, and transit area prospectors.
1889 marked the beginning of the urban settlement, when descendants
of
Santiago Argüello and
AugustÃn Olvera entered an agreement
to begin development of the city of Tijuana. The date of the
agreement, July 11, 1889, is recognized as the founding of the
city.
Tijuana saw its future in tourism from its inception. From the end
of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th, the city
attracted large numbers of Californians coming to Mexico for trade
and entertainment. The California land boom of the 1880s attracted
the first big wave of tourists, who were called "excursionists" and
came looking for echoes of the famous novel "
Ramona," by
Helen Hunt
Jackson.
In 1911, during the
Mexican
Revolution, revolutionaries claiming loyalty to
Ricardo Flores Magón attacked and
took over the city for shortly over a month. Federal troops soon
arrived and, combined with local loyal militia known as the
"defensores de Tijuana," routed the rebels, who fled back across
the line and were promptly arrested by the U.S. Army. This event is
a source of much local controversy, and the "rebels" are almost
universally reviled in Tijuana as "filibusteros".
In 1915, the
Panama-California Exposition
brought a great number of visitors to the neighboring California
city of San Diego. Tijuana took the opportunity to attract these
tourists south of the border with a
Feria TÃpica Mexicana
- Typical Mexican Fair. This fair included curio shops, regional
foods, thermal baths, horse racing and boxing matches.
The first big professional race track was soon thereafter opened in
January, 1916, a few meters south of the border gate, near what is
now called Pueblo Amigo. It was almost immediately destroyed by the
great "Hatfield rainmaker" flood of 1916. Rebuilt in the same
general area, it ran horse races until the new
Agua Caliente track was opened several miles
south and across the river on higher ground, in 1929, one year
after the famous casino and hotel complex.
Legal drinking and gambling attracted U.S nationals, especially
during
Prohibition
in the 1920s. The
Avenida
Revolución area became the tourist center of the city with
casinos such as the Foreign Club, and lodging such as Hotel
Caesar's, birthplace of the
Caesar
Salad.
In 1928, the Agua Caliente Touristic Complex was opened, including
hotel, spa, dog-track, private airport, golf course and gambling
casino.
A
year later, the new Agua Caliente Racetrack
joined the complex. During the eight years
it operated, the Agua Caliente hotel, casino and spa achieved a
near mythical status, with Hollywood stars and gangsters flying in
and playing. Rita Hayworth was discovered there. Musical nightclub
productions were broadcast over the radio. A singer known as "la
Faraona" got shot in a love-triangle and gave birth to the myth of
a beautiful lady ghost.
Remnants of the Agua Caliente casino can be seen in the outdoor
swimming pool and the "minarete" (actually a former incinerator
chimney) nearby the southern end of Avenida Sanchez Taboada, on the
grounds of what is now the Lazaro Cardenas educational
complex.
In 1935, President Cardenas decreed an end to gambling and casinos
in Baja California, and the Agua Caliente complex faltered, then
closed. It was eventually reopened as a school. The buildings
themselves were torn down in the 1970s, and replaced by modern
scholastic architecture.
In 1925, the city attempted to shed its negative image of hedonism
and lawlessness created by American mob empresarios by renaming
itself
Zaragoza, but its name soon reverted to
Tijuana.
With increased tourism and the large number of Mexican citizens
relocating to Tijuana, the city's population grew from 21,971 to
65,364 between 1940 and 1950.
With the decline of nightlife and tourism in the 1950s, the city
restructured its tourist industry, by promoting a more
family-oriented scene. Tijuana developed a greater variety of
attractions and activities to offer its visitors.
In 1994,
PRI
presidential candidate
Luis Donaldo
Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana while making an appearance
in the plaza of Lomas Taurinas, a neighborhood nestled in a valley
near Centro. The shooter was caught and imprisoned, but doubts
remain about who the mastermind might have been.
Over forty million people cross the border each year between
Tijuana and San Ysidro, California, making it the busiest
land-border crossing in the world. Although tourism constitutes a
large part of this movement, much is also business related. Tijuana
and its surrounding area have become a major industrial center,
with numerous
maquiladoras,
particularly since the advent of the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
Etymology
In early documents — primarily mission records (baptisms,
marriages, deaths) — there are mentions of "La Tia Juana",
"Tiguana", "Tiuana", "Teguana", "Tiwana", "Tijuan", "Ticuan",
"Tijuana". It is believed by some that name comes from the
Yuman Indian language from
the aboriginal Kumeyaay (Kumiai) inhabitants. They spoke a Yuman
language, in which some have claimed "Tijuana" originated from
"Tiwan", meaning close to the sea. Others say this is not certain,
that there is no such word in Kumayaay, and that the name comes
from another location of similar appearance (and name) in the south
of the peninsula, and the name was brought north by Spanish and
Mexican soldiers and mule-drivers.
Another foundation myth is that in the beginning there was an old
Indian woman, "tia Juana" (aunt Jane), who provided travelers with
good food and a place to rest. In spite of scholarly denunciation,
this story continues to be very popular with residents of the city.
It has particular resonance amongst those who like to imagine the
city as a place of hospitality.
In
Spanish, the name is ; in
English, the pronunication is
generally used.
It is commonly called "TJ" in California and "Tiyei" (matching the sound of the English
initials "TJ") in Mexico. Mexicans from Tijuana typically
refer to themselves as "Tijuanenses."
The nickname "Tijuas" is increasingly popular among residents and
visitors alike.
Due to a recent increase in violence in the city, a new term is
developing. The term "Yo Tijuaneo, y tu?" translates to "I Tijuana,
and you?" This term comes from a new popular local verb "Tijuanear"
meaning "to Tijuana" describing the cosmopolitan aspects of living
in the city and frequently crossing the border. The term is
becoming much more popular to help stop unfair and false criticisms
of the city.
Geography
Boroughs (delegaciones)
The municipality of Tijuana is divided into administrative boroughs
(
delegaciones, in Spanish) of which the city of Tijuana
occupies nine, which are in turn divided into colonias. These
boroughs offer administrative services such as urban planning,
civil registry, inspection, verification, public works and
community development and are served by a
Delegado
Municipal (Municipal Delegate).
Tijuana River
The
Tijuana
River
(RÃo Tijuana) is an intermittent river, long, on
the Pacific coast of northern Baja California in Mexico and southern
California in the United States
. It drains an arid area along the U.S.–Mexico border, flowing
through Mexico for most its course then crossing the border for its
lower to empty into the ocean in an estuary on the southwesternmost
corner of the United
States. Its lower reaches provide the last
undeveloped coast wetlands in San Diego County amidst a highly
urbanized environment at the southern city limits of
Imperial Beach. The river has been the
subject of controversy in recent decades regarding pollution, flood
control, and
U.S.
border protection. Because Downtown Tijuana was built at the
bottom of the river valley, it is subject to flooding from
drain-off from the rest of the city in two rainy months of the year
(typically December and January). During this time, east-bound
portions of the Via Rapida (east-west highway) may be blocked off
by the Tijuana Police due to hazardous conditions.
Topography
Tijuana is noted for its rough terrain, which includes many
canyons, steep hills, and mesas. Among noted canyons in Tijuana are
Canyon K and
Canyon Jhonson (sic). Large Tijuana hills
include
Cerro Colorado and
Cerro de las Abejas in the eastern part
of the city, which many schoolchildren climb as part of annual
field trips.
Climate
Tijuana's climate is
semi-arid
(
Koppen climate
classification BSh), with about 235mm (less than 10")
of annual precipitation. It shows characteristics of the Dry-Summer
Subtropical
Mediterranean
climate (
Csa) found to the immediate north, with most
of the annual precipitation falling in the winter (between November
and March).
Demographics
Tijuana has a vastly diverse population consisting of immigrants
from all over Mexico and the world. The city is home to one of
Mexico's largest Asian populations, mostly made up of Chinese
immigrants, and to a lesser extent Koreans and Japanese. Tijuana is
also home to a large and rapidly growing population of United
States citizens, mostly from
Southern California, who have moved to
the city to avoid the higher
cost of
living in their home country while still being able to work in
San Diego. Many latinos from outside Mexico hoping to enter the
United States have made Tijuana their home, especially people from
Central America, but also from
Andean nations. A large transitory population
exists in Tijuana due to border aspirations or deportations.
The
majority of Tijuana's populations is made of immigrants from other
regions of Mexico especially Sinaloa
, Michoacan
, Jalisco
, Oaxaca
and the
Federal District.
Because of the diversity in Mexico and the influx of immigrants
from almost every region in the country there are no accurate
estimates on ethnicity or race of the current population.
Tijuana today is one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico with
an average of 80,000 people moving to Tijuana yearly, along with
construction of 26,000 new homes a year. Many of the unregulated
substandard sprawl take place in the hills of ever expanding
Tijuana, leaving the downtown and beach areas for the
affluent.
There is a high poverty level in Tijuana as it is a hub for people
from poorer parts of the country and other Latin nations who are
generally not well educated and to escape extreme poverty because
of the availability of employment as well as higher education and
the dream of crossing the border. Tijuana and Baja California state
in general have much stronger economies and higher incomes than
Mexican border cities across from Texas.
Culture
The
Tijuana Cultural Center
(CECUT) opened in October 20, 1982 with the goals of strengthening
Tijuana's image, and to advertise cultural tourism from the US. The
building was constructed by the architects Pedro RamÃrez Vázquez
and Manuel Rosen Morrison. The CECUT first opened as part of the
National Fund for Social Activities then in 1983 it was part of the
Ministry of Tourism. Later that year CECUT was joined into the
Ministry of Public Education. Finally, in 1986 the CECUT gained its
own independence, and was able to plan its own budget. In 1988 they
changed their actions guiding themselves towards a comprehensive
national cultural policy.
It is composed of lecture rooms, video rooms, a library, an
exhibition hall, the
Museum of
the Californias, a futuristic planetary movie theater that
displays
IMAX films, and a restaurant. Since
1992, the CECUT has hosted the
Orchestra of Baja California
(OBC), it headquarters the
Center of Scenic Arts of
the Northwest (CAEN) and the
Hispanic-American Center for
Guitar (CHG). Since 2001, the CECUT receives about a million
visitors per year, making it Baja California's most important
cultural center. Another important culture center is La Casa de la
Cultura, comprising of a school, a theater, and a public library.
Dance, painting, music, plastic arts, photography and languages are
taught there. The city also has the
Instituto Municipal de Arte
y Cultura (Municipal Institute of Art and Culture), the
Tijuana Wax Museum, and the
Museo El Trompo (The
Trompo
Museum).
Tijuana also has a very active and independent artist community
whose internationally recognized work has earned Tijuana the title
of "one of the most important new cultural meccas", according to
Newsweek.
Strange New World, an exhibition
of Tijuana's current art scene, is being curated by the Museum of
Contemporary Art San Diego
and is traveling across the USA in 2006 and
2007. Art collectives like
Bulbo and film
production like
Palenque Filmaciones explore the use of
film like the award winning
Tijuana Makes Me Happy, media like
television bulbo TV and print "bulbo PRESS", to show different
realities of Tijuana out of Mexico. In 2004, Tijuana earned
international acclaim for an art exhibition displayed on the cement
banks of the Tijuana River and along the Mexico/U.S. border fence
in Otay Mesa.
Graffiti is widespread in Tijuana. It can
range from free-hand writing in spray can and marker form, often
carrying social or sexual commentary in English or Spanish,
pictures in
wheatpaste and stencils,
consisting of stenciled renderings of personalities crucial to
Hispanic culture from past and present eras, such as television
news announcers or stars, but also extending to images of artists
like
Salvadore Dali.
Graffiti in Tijuana may seem at first to consist
largely of simplistic tags and thus not as technically evolved,
colorful, or accepted in the mainstream as the "pieces" of
graffiti scenes of the United States, Europe, or
Japan, but large, colorful graffiti murals adorn walls from both
native Tijuanense artists as well as visiting graffiti writers,
especially from California. The Tijuanense art pieces show as much
prowess and skill as those made by their more renowned U.S.
counterparts, although illicit graffiti is strongly discouraged by
the Tijuana government, as in other major metropolitan areas.
Tijuana is home of the
Nortec, a fusion of
Norteñas or typical northern-Mexican music and electronic
music, such as the music of
The
Nortec Collective and other electronic music artists as
Eduardo Martinez "
emc X" that
is best known for his full of energy and fashion live acts, and
Murcof, which have placed Tijuana in the
international eye of specialized magazines and forums in recent
years. Additionally, Tijuana also enjoys a large base of support in
many other musical scenes, such as
Mexican hip hop,
hardcore,
punk,
black metal,
Tijuana Brass and
house
music. Famous musical acts from Tijuana include the world known
singer Julieta Venegas, Hip-Hop click
Tijuana Rap, and bands like Delux.
Musical clubs in the
Avenida
Revolución area and others often cater to a diverse range of
tastes by offering nightly variations on musical fare, such as
New Wave music one night, and punk
rock bands on the next. Interestingly, some metal bands from Europe
whose members cannot perform in the United States due to prior
felony convictions in their own countries will play music festivals
in Tijuana so as to attract fans from both Mexico and the United
States.
Although poverty is widespread throughout the city, a very affluent
and prominent society has developed in Tijuana.
Gentrification is evident throughout certain
districts. The
Club Campestre
de Tijuana (Tijuana Country Club) has many affluent members and
a famous golf course. A large sized Rotary Club is also located in
Tijuana. The Grand Hotel Tijuana and many luxurious restaurants
have been developed along Bulevar Agua Caliente (often called "El
Bulevar" by locals) and in the
Zona Rio.
Around
the country club and Agua Caliente, many developments of wealthy
and luxurious gated communities have filled the hillsides, most of
which have views similar to Mount Soledad
in San Diego or areas of Orange
County
. There are many amazing restaurants in
Tijuana, attracting both locals and travelers. These four-star
restaurants range from
Argentine to
Italian to
Japanese food.
Entertainment
Tijuana's
most prestigious entertainment center is the Club Campestre de Tijuana golf
club, but the Agua Caliente Racetrack would be the most notable that is open to the
general public. Parque Morelos
has a small zoo and park space;
Parque de la Amistad has a small pond,
and a running and dirt-bike track.
Parque Teniente Guerrero is a park
located downtown with a public library and weekend entertainment by
clowns.
El Foro was an attraction for being
a jai alai venue, but now is commonly used as a concert
venue.
The most popular tourist attraction is a nightclub show. Many
foreigners travel to Tijuana to drink and dance, buy
prescription drugs,
illegal drugs (especially in and around dance
clubs), purchase bootleg brand-name clothing, timepieces, and other
personal accessories found globally, as well as manufactured and
hand-crafted local curiosities. Locals and regular tourists avoid
hassles by visiting the clubs at
Plaza
Fiesta or other areas of the
Zona RÃo without the crowds, heavy
marketing, and occasional tourist misbehavior or outright
lawbreaking common on the Revolución strip. However, Avenida
Revolución has been known for its proliferation of nightclub shows,
primarily catering to casual tourists. While still an entertaining
town with an enjoyable atmosphere, locals and tourists alike would
agree that it has lost its "anything goes" mentality which it had
once acquired, a mindset that was dangerous to tourists, locals,
and the tourism industry as a whole.
Tijuana possesses a diversity of shopping malls including
Plaza RÃo,
Plaza Mundo Divertido, Plaza Monarca,
Plaza
Carrousel, and Centro Comercial Playas/Plaza Coronado. Plaza
RÃo is the largest mall and is located just a few minutes away from
the US border between Paseo de los heroes and the Tijuana River.
The mall hosts a
Cinépolis and a
Cinépolis VIP movie theater, a
Sanborns restaurant and a variety of shops,
including the large department stores Mas and Dorians. Plaza Mundo
Divertido is off of Tijuana's main east-west highway with arcades
and rides for the whole family. Plaza Monarca is on a north-south
artery known as "Gato Bronco" and is anchored by the movie theater
Cinépolis and the grocery chain
Soriana (formerly a Gigante Supermarket). Plaza Carrousel, so named
because the mall contains a children's merry-go-round, is minutes
from the Cinco y Diez retail hub centered around a former five and
dime store. The beach community of Playas de Tijuana saw a burst of
construction in 2004, which yielded the Plaza Coronado complex next
to the existing Comercial Mexicana-anchored Centro Comercial
Playas.
Tijuana also enjoys notoriety among Americans and other nationals
for its
red-light district
Zona Norte (referred to as
La Coahuila after one of the main streets in it)
which boasts a large number of legal street prostitutes as well as,
in parts, a selection of
strip clubs
offering at least one establishment per block. The strip clubs are
typically full-contact, meaning the dancers will allow patrons to
fondle them. The dancers in most clubs also sell their sexual
services, which are pricier ($US 72 in early-2007) than those of
the street prostitutes.
People filling up prescriptions for drugs classified in the US as
Schedule II or
Schedule III have found it more
difficult to locate such medications, and the purchase of
pseudoephedrine also has become restricted by Tijuana pharmacies,
as it is in the United States. For a prescription to be filled in
Tijuana and brought legally to the United States, any drug covered
by the US
Controlled
Substances Act would require a prescription from the United
States for re-import.
Recently numerous artists created an aura of freedom and pleasure
regarding the life in Tijuana. The famous singer Manu Chao, author
of "King of the Bongo", has a song called "Welcome to Tijuana" and
the refrain goes: "Welcome to Tijuana/ Tequila, sexo y
marihuana".
Sports
The city is home to two
professional basketball teams. The
Tijuana Dragons play in the
American
Basketball Association against teams from the United States.
The team is composed mostly of U.S. players. Their season takes
place during the winter months. The
Galgos de Tijuana (Tijuana
Greyhounds) play in the LNBP (
Liga Nacional de
Baloncesto Profesional) during the summer months, thier anthem
well known for the hip hip influence was created by
Tijuana Rap. The team is composed mostly of
players from Mexico.
Both teams play in the Municipal
Auditorium
.
Former
super featherweight
boxing champion
Erik
Morales calls Tijuana his home.
The city has a strong tradition of
football.
It currently plays
host to Club Tijuana of the Primera División A, the second tier
of Mexican football, who play their matches at the Estadio
Caliente
, a new 33,000 seat stadium. The team`s
mascot is the
Xoloitzcuintle, or the
famous Mexican hairless dog. The club has ambitions of becoming a
top club.
Education
Tijuana is home to many primary schools as well as several colleges
and universities.
Notable primary, secondary and preparatory schools
Colleges and universities
Economy
Manufacturing
Due to Tijuana's proximity to Southern California and the US border
and its large, skilled, diverse and relatively inexpensive
workforce it is an attractive city for foreign companies to
establish extensive industrial parks composed of assembly plants
that are called
maquiladoras,
even more so than other cities in the US-Mexican border zone,
taking advantage of the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) to export products. At its peak, in 2001
Tijuana had roughly 820 of these 'maquiladoras' (today the number
is closer to 550). Foreign and domestic companies employ thousands
of employees in these plants, usually in assembly related labor.
Such jobs are demanding but offer high pay for Mexico. Companies
that have set up 'maquiladoras' in Tijuana include
Hyundai,
Sony,
Toyota,
Samsung,
Kodak,
Matsushita /
Panasonic,
Nabisco,
Philips,
Pioneer,
Plantronics,
Pall Medical, Tara,
Sanyo,
Volkswagen and vimay. Many of the
maquiladoras are located in the Otay Mesa and Florido sections of
Tijuana.
Service industry
In addition there are also some high-tech firms and telemarketing
companies making their way into the city drawing skilled people
with technical trades and college degrees to Tijuana. One example
is Telvista, a Texas-based telemarketing company which maintains
three call centers along Blvd. Agua Caliente. The nominal
GDP per capita of the city is above the
national average at about $35,000 per year, third only to Cancún
and Mexico City (source:
INEGI). This makes Tijuana a popular city for migrant workers
as well as college graduates from other parts of Mexico as well as
other countries to the south.
Tourism
From the arch hangs a sign saying "Bienvenidos a Tijuana" (Welcome
to Tijuana)
Tijuana also relies on tourism as a major revenue.
About 300,000
visitors cross by foot or car from the San
Ysidro
point of entry in the United States every
day. Restaurants and taco stands, pharmacies, bars and dance
clubs are part of the draw for the city's tourists. Many shops and
stalls selling Mexican crafts and souvenirs are also located in
walking distance from the border. Mexico's
drinking age of 18 (vs. 21 in the United
States) make it a common weekend destination for many high school
and college aged Southern Californians who tend to stay within the
Avenida Revolución. Tijuana
is also home to several pharmacies marketed toward visitors from
the United States. These pharmacies sell some pharmaceutical drugs
without prescriptions, and at much lower costs than pharmacies in
the US. Many medications still require a Mexican doctor's
prescription though several accessible doctor offices are located
near the border as well. In addition Tijuana has a legal
"red-light" district known as the
Zona
Norte which also adds significant revenue to its economy.
Tijuana is also home to many businesses selling products and
services at a much cheaper rate than in the United States. Such
businesses as auto detailing, medical services, dentistry and
plastic surgery are heavily marketed and located near the city's
border with the US.
Economic research and development
Economic development has its
central business district at
Zona RÃo, which with the
corridor along Blvd. Agua Caliente (the extension of Avenida
Revolución) contains the majority of the higher-end office space in
the city. Binational economic development along the US-Mexico
border is key to the development of Tijuana going forward. Multiple
regional (San Diego-US/Tijuana-MX) think-tanks exist on both sides
of the border that promote such regional collaboration and
innovation.
Government
Infrastructure
Sewer
The
International
Boundary Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWTP) was developed as a
joint project of the USA
and Mexico in the mid
1980s following substantial environmental studies; the plant
currently treats 25 million gallons per day (mgd) directly pumped
across the border from the central collection point in Mexico (Pump
Station #1). When there is any flow in the river, the river
diverter kicks in and diverts up to about 12-13 mgd to the IWTP.
The totals from either must not exceed 25 mgd, based on a monthly
average (permit conditions) although the IWTP can treat sustained
flows up to 45mgd daily and peaks of 70 or so for a short period.
The diverter is regularly sending approximately six to eight mgd
daily to the IWTP.
Japanese credit plants
The plants (a total of 4-5 decentralized units in all) have been
planned for some time as part of the "Tijuana/Rosarito Potable
Water and Wastewater Master Plan". This plan was required as part
of Public Law 106-457 (Nov.7-2000) which was written to allow the
Bajagua project to move forward. The master plan was a binational
collaborative effort by EPA and CESPT and addressed those cities'
needs for the next 20 years.
The plants are intended to treat approximately 5 mgd each, to
tertiary levels and provide the reclaimed water to the surrounding
areas for agriculture, industry etc.
There are several issues that they are facing: no infrastructure to
convey the reclaimed water to customers and inadequate groundwater
recharge infrastructure.
Water
Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos Tijuana, (State Commission
of Public Services Tijuana) better known as CESPT, is Tijuana's
water supplier.
Electrical
As with all of Mexico, Tijuana's electricity is supplied by
Comisión Federal
de Electricidad (CFE).
Telephone
Land lines in Tijuana are provided by Telnor, other companies
include Axtel and Alestra. Popular cell phone carriers include
Movistar, Telcel and Nextel. Nextel is popular among businessmen,
students, and professionals. The first cellular call in Mexico was
made in Tijuana in 1989. The area code of the town is 664.
Crime
Tijuana's crime problems are often
blamed on
drug trafficking and
human trafficking rings which
smuggle drugs and people into California. In
2004, nine kidnapping cases were reported to
authorities in Baja California. However, that number is believed to
be low because many cases are not reported to police. In the first
four months of 2005, there were 151 homicides and in 2004, there
were 355 homicides. According to
Francisco Castro Trenti, an
administrator of the homicide investigation teams in Tijuana,
Rosarito Beach and Tecate, at least 20% of Tijuana's homicides were
related to organized crime groups in the city.
In recent years, gun battles between rival drug cartels or between
cartels and the police have erupted in public. In April 2008 police
found 1,500 shell casings on various public streets after one such
episode that left 13 suspected drug traffickers dead. For 2008, the
city has confirmed 843 murders (56.8 murders per 100,000 people,
and more than twice as much as 2007), most a result of the
escalating drug violence that has gripped the city. The main reason
for the outbreak has is due to president
Felipe Calderón cracking down on drug
cartels.
Many auto
theft crimes that occur in Southern California end in Tijuana. The proximity of
Tijuana to the U.S.
border
allows thieves to get them across the border for resale or
parts.
Transportation
Air travel
The
General Abelardo L.
RodrÃguez International
Airport is the city's airport, with eleven airlines serving
destinations across the nation and Asia. It is one of the
busiest airports in Mexico. Aeromexico introduced intercontinental
air travel between Tijuana and two major cities in Asia, Tokyo in
2007 and Shanghai in 2008.
With several private road lines, U.S. and
selected Canadian destinations can be reached via the busy San Diego
International Airport
, located about north of the international
border.
Public transportation
Mexico is served by a network of bus transportation, reaching
virtually all parts of the country. The city's main
bus station is in its eastern area. There is
also a small terminal downtown which serves a few
Mexican bus lines and US-based
Greyhound Lines and
Crucero USA.
Another bus station is near the border, with
frequent services to Ensenada
, and other Mexican states, like Sinaloa, Sonora
, and
Jalisco, to major cities like Mazatlan
, Culiacan
, Hermosillo
, and Guadalajara
.
Local transportation
Local public transportation in Tijuana is run by semiprivate
companies, and has one of the most complex, or perhaps unorganized
networks.
Major
bus lines:
- Azul y Blanco de Magallanes (Blue & White)
- Transporte Efectivo Express de Tijuana (TEEXTI; modernizing
system that was intended to phase out the other lines, partially
introduced, now ceased and merged with Azul y Blanco)
- Verde y Crema (Green & Beige)
- Transportes Urbanos y Suburbanos S.A. de C.V.
- Sociedad de Transportes Urbanos y Suburbanos Tijuana S.A. de
C.V.
- U.N.T.I.M.A
Major
taxi lines:
- Taxis libres (Spanish for Free Taxis, meaning that
they have no route)
- Taxis Economicos (yellow cabs)
- Taxis Diamante (similar to Buenos Aires
black & yellow cabs)
- Fixed-route taxis
Other:
- Calafias (short bus-like vans, common in the eastern
part of the city or lower class city areas; several owner companies
exist)
There are as many bus lines (the companies) and routes as
fixed-route taxi ones or calafias, and new routes for buses, taxis
or calafias are frequently created, due to high demand of public
transportation. Public transportation service is cheap, with bus
tickets at $8.00
Mexican Peso (about
$0.75
U.S. dollar) the maximum;
fixed-route taxis are somewhat more expensive, depending on the
taxi route, reaching $15.00
Mexican
Peso. Bus, taxi and calafia lines and routes are distinguised
one from another by their vehicles colors.
All means of transportation within the city accept both
Mexican Peso and
U.S.
dollar as payment currencies, but no other foreign
currencies.
Major bus (also served by some fixed-route taxi lines) routes by
destinations include the following:
- Mirador-Miramar-Soler-Centro-Plaza
Rio-Otay-Aeropuerto (reaches Tijuana
International Airport
)
- Altamira-Villa-Centro-Plaza Rio-20 de Noviembre-Otay
Modulos (reaches Zona
Rio and the UABC Tijuana
campus)
- Playas 2-Soler-Centro-Linea-Palacio-Hospital-Buena
Vista-Central Camionera (reaches Playas de Tijuana, the city bus station
area, the Tijuana-San Ysidro border, the Municipal Palace, and the
city's General Hospital)
- Centro-Linea-Palacio-Postal-Otay-UABC-Corredor
2000 (reaches the Tijuana-San Ysidro border, the Municipal
Palace, the UABC Tijuana campus
and new Corredor 2000)
All bus, fixed-route taxi and calafia routes reach Centro, and most
of them reach or reach nearly Plaza Rio (at
Zona Rio) and Otay areas.
In 2006, Tijuana underwent a major overhaul of its existing system
of guayines, or shared fixed-route station wagons, forcing the
replacement of the guayines with new models of vans, serving as
fixed-route taxis. Major transit hubs include Centro (Downtown
Tijuana), Otay, Soler, and the
Cinco y
Diez
avenues.
Tijuana-San Ysidro
From the US side, San Ysidro is the southern terminus of San
Diego's municipal bus and
trolley
systems, providing public transportation to and from the Mexican
border with Tijuana. The newly-rebuilt San Ysidro trolley station
is located directly next to the US Customs facility.
Both cities are served by the
MEXICOACH
and
Gotobus buses.
Roads
Tijuana is home to the world's busiest border crossing with about
300,000 people crossing the border between San Diego and Tijuana
every day. Queues take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or
more to cross to the United States, on non-US holidays, with wait
of a few hours on US national holidays or some Mexican holidays.
Expect street vendors during the wait.
However, after
clearing customs and immigration formalities, Interstate 5 is a major 8-10 lane
freeway from San
Ysidro
to downtown San Diego, Los
Angeles
, and north to the Canadian border. Interstate 805 branches off from
I-5 just north of the border, and takes a more easterly route which
bypasses downtown San Diego, rejoining with I-5 in the northern
part of the city. From the Otay Mesa border crossing, Otay Mesa
Road takes drivers west to connect with both I-805 and I-5.
Two
important Mexican federal highways end in Tijuana, one of them is
Federal Highway 1, which
runs south through the Baja
California peninsula, ending in Cabo San Lucas
, Baja California Sur
. From Tijuana to Ensenada, most travelers
take Highway 1-D (scenic road), a four-lane, limited access toll
road that runs by the coast starting at
Playas de Tijuana.
Mexican Federal Highway 2 runs
east for 1,000 kilometers near the international border, currently
as far as Ciudad
Juárez
, Chihuahua
.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Tijuana is
twinned with:
Notable people
See also
References
- Tijuana, entry in the American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language, 4th ed., 2000. Transcribed into
IPA.
- World Gazetteer – San Diego-Tijuana
- World Gazetteer – Metropolitan Areas of
America
- Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas
http://www.tijuana.gob.mx/ciudad/CiudadHistoriaMinima.asp
- As determined at the second Symposium of History, 1975.
- [1] Massive traffic cripples Tijuana border
crossing.
- http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/568/56842328.pdf
- Historia http://www.cecut.gob.mx/acerca.php
- Algunos datos de la industria maquiladora de
exportación
- C.Michael Hogan, Marc Papineau et al., {1985} Preliminary
Assessment of Environmental Effects of Sewage on San Diego
Beaches (EIS). Prepared by Earth Metrics Inc. for the U.S.
EPA, Region IX.
- Kidnap fears causing some to leave Tijuana on
SignOnSanDiego.com
- Days are grueling and grisly for Tijuana's homicide
cops on SignOnSanDiego.com
- 13 dead in Tijuana shootouts on CNN.com
External links
(UIA)
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
