Shari’s Ramblings
I was recently looking through some old issues of Cancun Tips, which I had received at the airport on my many excursions. I just loved those things. I hope they still have those for tourists today.
I was looking at all the businesses that once existed and some that still exist to this day. One business that I saw advertised was a short lived night club called Extasis. I bet somebody spent a fortune on that venture. I bet they lost it all too.
It was a very beautiful nightclub directly across the street from LaBoom. It just didn’t attract the people or at least not the right people. I only went in a few times but didn’t stay long because I was bored to tears. I wonder how different Cancun would be today if that place had been a huge hit. Could it be that DaddyOs and those other clubs would have built in the LaBoom area instead of Christine’s neighborhood.
Following the “everything happens for a reason” philosophy, it is a good thing it didn’t make it. If LaBoom was so badly damaged by the hurricane that it has never reopened, the majority of Cancun’s nightlife would have been erased with it. Cancun may not have become the city it is today.
Where would things be today, I wondered, if Extasis had been a big hit. Let’s imagine that most of the large nightclubs were then built in that area. What would have happened?
One of the first problems would have been traffic. The traffic tie ups would have choked off downtown from the hotel zone, at least at night. That would have been too devastating on the city’s economy to be allowed to last. This would have meant more land for roads and new businesses would have been in great demand in an area with a lot of water. How much would they have filled in? Could the island shaped like a 7 have become an island shaped like a 9?
Although Cancun was originally a planned resort destination with very strict guidelines for expansion, those plans and guidelines have been continually modified. So who is to say whether or not part of the lagoon may have been sacrificed in the name of progress?
With all that expense, there would need to be additional hotels and businesses to make it profitable and justifiable. Would someone suggest that this new development should now become the third phase in Cancun’s development and the planned third phase become the fourth? Would Ave. Tulum be extended into this new area connecting the downtown area to this hot spot in two locations? That would make small loop between this area and downtown.
In this situation, rather than being choked off by the traffic, the downtown area would be enhanced. That would have helped the government and developers sell this idea. As the waterfront part of this loop was developed, the development would continue into the downtown area and big hotels would begin to line the city streets. New development would require more expansion of the city’s infrastructure. More water treatment plants, improved septic services, improved or new power plants, and so much more would eventually be required to fill the needs of these new resorts.
If all those improvements are done properly, the downtown area could become ahead of its time. They could take this opportunity to upgrade all of the city’s services with the technology of the future. A new state of the art, technologically advanced city. Condo developers would be quick to sell the high tech Cancun. It was just minutes from beautiful beaches with the top of the line technology. As we entered the computer age, people would swarm these “high tech” downtown condos.
The city would become just as popular if not more so than the hotel zone. Tourists would continue to flock to the beaches, while others rushed to make Cancun their new home. Technology companies would race to open headquarters in the high tech resort community and the city would grow at an unprecedented pace. Computer companies may even choose to make Cancun their headquarters rather than California’s Silicon Valley. After all, computers were a very new industry at this point in time. Few people had home computers or even thought of having a home computer yet.
The city could have bloomed magnificently, for many, many years. Eventually however, time would catch up with the city. It’s new infrastructure would age. Technology would continue to advance and what was new and state of the art would become antiquated. The pollution and traffic would become problematic in the city, which had become a mass of high rise condos, office buildings, hotels and shopping malls. Tourists would avoid the city. Crime would increase and quickly over take the hotel zone. A large part of the hotel zone would have become part of the city, after all.
As the tourists found safer and cleaner destinations, they would abandon Cancun. The city may keep it’s corporate population and even attract more industry. Perhaps it would even become one of the largest cities in that part, or all of the country. In that regard it may be a great success but it will have lost everything that it once was. The beauty, the peace, the serenity, the flavor, the happiness, would all be gone and it would be just another big city.
Eventually as the city expanded and the tourism declined, they may decide to just fill in the lagoon completely. What purpose did it serve now? That area was needed for the expanding businesses and housing the workforces. Maybe corporate executives would use the land for their corporate estates. The island of Cancun would cease to exist as it was now part of the mainland. People would forget how much of the city was filled in land. A false sense of security would take over now that Cancun was no longer an island. Hurricanes may pass through but much of the city would feel protected by all the buildings that had been built between it and the sea.
One day, however it would happen. A storm would eventually come through that would remind everyone of the power of the sea. The high rises would rock violently in the wind, as water flooded the city and the sea began to claim much of the filled land. Many structures would tumble or suffer terminal damage. All would be lost for those with the biggest investments. It would cause a down turning economical spiral as the corporations took their losses and moved to higher ground. The city, once thriving, would become a virtual ghost town.
The sea would continue to reclaim what was once it’s own. Then one day in the far away future someone would come along to claim it. They would decide it would be a wonderful idea to develop a tourist destination, on the site of the ruins of Cancun.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Final Ecstasy