Cartas al Editor de Atención San Miguel

Editor,

Three years ago when the Pípila with its traffic circle was finished, there was a huge bump because of the unevenness of the street leading out toward Celaya. Then, the new administration took office with a young mayor who seemed eager to improve matters in San Miguel. The huge bump disappeared overnight. One could see matters were being taken in hand and streets and sidewalks, among other concerns, were being taken care of. It seemed San Miguel finally had a mayor with a vision to change things for the benefit of San Miguel.

Now, three years later, it seems these superficial improvements were done to keep us, the citizens and residents of San Miguel, blind. Big business was carried out behind closed doors. Since there is no transparency in what the government does (despite the fact that the federal government of the same party campaigned for more transparency), San Miguel was totally unaware of the monster developments and projects they planned for this town. We are paying a heavy price in many aspects: visually, economically, and ecologically. Unfortunately, the past administration showed no vision at all aside from greed and the longing for power.

What we see is not only a “Celaya-zation” but the same thing that happened to the magical towns of Taos and Santa Fe in New Mexico: a few blocks of history in the center of town and the rest taken over by real estate developers and Wal-Mart and the like.

San Miguel with its unique character is facing the same fate if we don’t put a stop to these developments. One step toward more control would be to oblige the local government to make public any commercial or private development exceeding a certain size and call for a public forum.

Claudius Ruile