Border Report: Transit in Tijuana remains a thorny issue

Musicians, writers, artists, designers, dancers, cyclists, architects and mobility activists occupied empty bus stations in various parts of Tijuana on Saturday in an unusual public protest. Their goal: to draw attention to the city’s desperate need for a modern transportation system.

The citizen action, promoted by the collective Mover la Ciudad – Move the City, attracted the attention of drivers and pedestrians who passed stations in many tourist, commercial and government districts near the US-Mexico border.

By briefly taking over stations, participants hoped to shed light on Tijuana’s bus rapid transit system, which was supposedly launched in 2016 but never lived up to expectations. The route, known as the Sistema Integral de Transporte de Tijuana (SITT), is 37 miles long and includes 45 stations from the U.S.-Mexico border down Avenida Revolucion to the Rio Zone and along the Via Rapida highways surrounding the Tijuana River Canal.

“The concept is very interesting,” said Elizabeth Hensley Chaney of Alianza por la Movilidad Activa, a Tijuana-based nonprofit group that promotes alternatives to the car such as safe bike routes, pedestrian access and public transit. SITT “promised to solve the problem of mass urban mobility,” she told me. “How is it that when it was launched it was expected to carry over 50,000 people a day and we don’t see more than 500?”

Hensley and fellow Alianza director Daniel Gomez coordinated the day’s events, which included dance performances, exhibits, a concert by a youth brass band and a fashion show featuring emerging Tijuana designers. Also involved in the project were La Escuela Libre de Arquitectura in the city’s Zona Norte, the Tijuana Economic Development Council, and Nora Márquez, Tijuana’s planning chief, who gave a speech on public spaces.

Transport is a sensitive issue

Tijuana’s main thoroughfares are often congested with vehicles because residents prefer cars to buses. Public transportation in Tijuana has been a thorny issue for decades, and travelers have long had to contend with a disorganized and expensive system of buses, minibuses and shared taxis. Unlike San Diego, public transportation in the city is controlled by private companies working with government concessions. Over the years, politically powerful unions have repeatedly opposed government efforts to reform the system.

I covered this city in 2016, when it seemed that City Hall had finally made a breakthrough by gaining the support of private bus operators to launch SITT. Ten of the 14 companies agreed to form a consortium to operate the system as part of a 30-year concession granted to the city.

But even then, on that warm August morning, as Mayor Jorge Aztiazaran gave a tour of the new system with VIP passengers and media representatives, taxi drivers pushing for more permits began hitting the bus and tried to block it in front of City Hall. SITT didn’t seem like it was going to be a smooth ride.

City governments came and went, but SITT stuck because mayors avoided fighting the politically powerful transporters.

The city is in the process of handing over the system to the state government. During a public appearance last month, state transportation chief Jorge Alberto Gutierrez called SITT an “ongoing project” and said only two buses currently operate on the route. Further actions will require solving legal, financial and technical issues, he added.

Saturday’s protest was the second takeover of the SITT station by “Mover La Ciudad.” Rodolfo Argote Bribiesca, an architect from Tijuana, said he came up with the idea to organize a protest in empty stations one day when I was stuck in traffic. He started talking to friends and colleagues, and interest quickly grew. In early 2023, they began meeting weekly to plan their first event last year.

While the protests focused on SITT, Argote said the delays were emblematic of a broader problem in the city: a series of public projects launched with great hopes that have fallen victim to corruption and political pressure.

“This frustration is not only directed against the government, but also against the citizens,” he told me. “So many failed projects and no one says anything,” Argote said.

In other news

New mayors: As Mexico’s next president, Claudia Scheinbaum, begins a six-year term on Tuesday, Baja California’s six mayors are also set to begin three-year municipal terms. Like Scheinbaum, they are members of Mexico’s ruling MORENA party. Ismael Burgeño, the mayor-elect of Tijuana, is already building connections in San Diego. On Friday, he visited the offices of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), where he was welcomed by Nora Vargas, president of SANDAG and the San Diego Board of Supervisors. On September 21, Burgueño, a former elementary school teacher and leader of the MORENA Party in Baja California, threw out the first pitch at a Padres baseball game at PETCO Park.

Outgoing mayor of Tijuana under scrutiny: Outgoing Mayor Montserrat Caballero has been the subject of newspaper articles questioning her purchase of a mansion allegedly worth more than $800,000 (in US dollars) in the upscale Playas de Tijuana neighborhood. The case was first reported by Plural.Mx in Tijuana. Last week, Caballero told reporters that the property was purchased with her earnings and “great help” from her husband, a U.S. citizen. In a letter published Saturday in the Mexican newspaper Reforma, she said the property was valued at $80,000. Caballero is a former member of the MORENA party who was expelled after being accused of supporting a rival party’s candidate in the June 2 elections.

US fentanyl smugglers: Recent news reports indicate that drug cartels are using US citizens to smuggle fentanyl into the United States, with the main corridor being the San Diego border. The phenomenon has been reported on in recent weeks by KPBS-FM, the New York Times and the CBS news program 60 Minutes. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in fiscal year 2023, 86.4 people convicted of fentanyl smuggling in the United States were U.S. citizens.

From illegal migrant to federal legislator: A San Marcos woman who spent 20 years in the United States as an undocumented immigrant has returned to Mexico as a federal legislator. The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Alexandra Mendoza tells the story of Maribel Solache’s extraordinary journey.

Explorer, historian, photographer: Harry Crosby, a longtime San Diego resident who explored some of the most remote reaches of the Baja California Peninsula, died on September 12 at the age of 98. Crosby was a historian and photographer and the subject of the 2022 documentary “Harry Crosby’s ‘The Journeys,'” co-produced by Cinewest’s Isaac Artenstein and the San Diego History Center.

San Diego-Tijuana Jazz Festival: The first annual San Diego-Tijuana International Jazz Festival runs Friday through Sunday. Features performances in Tijuana, San Diego and Escondido. The full schedule can be found on the event website.

Border Blur: Architects from San Diego and Tijuana are scheduled to discuss the challenges and opportunities of working in a region that straddles the two countries’ border during a panel discussion to be held Oct. 16 at the World Design Capital Pavilion in Balboa Park from 5 to 7 p.m.

Gourmets remember: The annual Baja Culinary Fest takes place October 16–20 in Tijuana. Events include special dinners on October 16, 17 and 18, a state culinary competition on October 19, and a “Gastronomic Expo” on October 19 and 20 in the Caliente Stadium parking lot. Current information is published on the Facebook page.