Category Archives: Stories

Efficient border crossings topic of forum. By: Miguel Sedano

January 26, 2012

Enhanced driver’s license, pre-inspection of U.S.-bound trucks discussed.

A wide range of initiatives aimed at speeding up the passage of goods and people across the California-Mexico border were featured Wednesday at the Institute of the Americas on the University of California San Diego campus.
Among the proposals: increased segmentation of northbound traffic, a pre-inspection program in Mexico for U.S.-bound trucks, and enhanced California drivers licenses that would allow for faster processing of passenger vehicles.
The discussion was led by Institute president Charles Shapiro and two members of the Smart Border Coalition, co-chairman Malin Burnham and director James Clark. The 20-member coalition, started in 2008, is made up of business leaders from Tijuana and San Diego who are pushing for more efficient border crossings.
Burnham and Clark applauded existing programs such as the Sentri and Ready Lane that speed up border crossings for pre-screened passengers and those with approved U.S. travel documents. They expressed concern about the reconstruction of the San Ysidro border, a $577-million project that has been approved but not completely funded by Congress.
Without funding in the 2013 budget, “we’re going to have the biggest mess in the world,” said Clark, who is director of the Mexico Business Center of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
If a proposed cross-border air terminal gets approved and built, ticketed U.S. passengers will have their own pedestrian border crossing leading from Otay Mesa to Tijuana’s A.L. Rodriguez International Airport, where they can board flights for Shanghai, Tokyo and destinations across Mexico.
Clark said the Tijuana airport could also soon be receiving cargo flights from Europe. A German carrier is looking to establish service to and from Tijuana, he said.
If you are thinking in moving to Mexico, don’t think more act today.  We Can Help.  Call today 858-433-0561 or email Miguel Sedano  info@rentinginmexico.com the perfect home is waiting for you.

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Mexico Real Estate: Message From Max Katz – Broker/Owner From The Baja Real Estate Group

December 23, 2011

Hello. I’m Max Katz Broker / Owner of the Baja Real Estate Group and today I will share with you a our snapshot of the real estate market in Baja for 2011 and a few of our goals for 2012.

2011 began with renewed optimism – we experienced a substantial increase in real estate activity in Baja along with a major increase in tourism. We have also seen several Construction restarts along the Baja Coast, a major show of confidence for our market. Our Agents are very motivated and encouraged by the current trend.
Lower real estate prices coupled with developer and owner financing played a big part in our market in 2011. These factors contributed to year over year substantial increases in sales volume.

read more »

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12/20/2011 San Ysidro “Ready Lane” will start operating. By: Miguel Sedano.

December 17, 2011

 

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is set to open a new Ready Lane at the San Ysidro port of entry for persons crossing the border with RFID-embedded travel documents.
Radio Frequency Identification Technology
The new Ready Lane at San Ysidro will operate 24 hours a day, granting access to travelers with valid documentation such as the U.S. Passport Card, SENTRI card, the new Legal Permanent Resident “green card” and the new Border Crossing Card.

RFID-enabled cards together with the new Ready Lane will allow officers to screen travelers faster; the Ready Lane supports the ability to capture an entire group of travelers, in one vehicle, who may have different types of RFID-enabled travel documents.

The planned Ready Lane at San Ysidro follows the successful opening of a Ready Lane at the Otay Mesa port of entry, which also reduced wait times and eased traffic flows.

If you are thinking in moving to Mexico, don’t think more act today.  We Can Help.  Call today 858-433-0561 or email Miguel Sedano  info@rentinginmexico.com the perfect home is waiting for you.

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Mexico Real Estate Seminar at NAOS Living – Hosted by Baja Real Estate Group

November 25, 2011

 

NAOS Living and The Baja Real Estate Group hosted a seminar on Mexico real estate in the luxurious NAOS showroom in Rosarito Beach.

Speakers included Juan Pablo Arroyuelo, CEO from Fidelity National Title De Mexico, Lucia Treviño, Escrow Director, also from Fidelity, and Eduardo Rosales, current AMPI Rosarito President.

Attendees included local realtors as well as realtors from AMPI Ensenada. American realtors who where interested in the Seminar where also present and reserved a seat with several days in advance.

The panel addressed several topics and issues concerning real estate practices in Mexico. From the restricted Mexican Federal Zone to contracts and ethics. The seminar ended with an interactive question and answer segment.

The Baja Real Estate Group would like to thank everyone who attended this seminar, the speakers, Central de Arquitectura and to all the people who made this event possible.

For pictures of this event visit http://www.naosliving.com/
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http://www.bajarealestategroup.net (less info)

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Trying to Alter Perceptions, Mexico Uses Candid Chitchat

November 4, 2011

CAMPAIGNS that feature hidden-camera commercials are popular among marketers seeking to change perceptions about products because they offer consumers a chance to watch other consumers share candid opinions. Examples include spots for Folgers instant coffee, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Ford Motor.

Click to see the Mexico Taxi Project videos

Click to see the Mexico Taxi Project videos

Beginning on Friday, there will be another arrival amid their ranks: Mexico, which is seeking to change perceptions about conditions that tourists find there. The commercials are part of a campaign for the Mexico Tourism Board, with a budget estimated at more than $30 million, that is to run in major cities. The campaign also includes online and print advertising.

The commercials blend trappings of hidden-camera spots with elements of the HBO series “Taxicab Confessions.” To underline the mash-up, the campaign is called the “Mexico Taxi Project,” a title that is echoed in the address of a microsite, or special Web site, at mexicotaxiproject.com.

The microsite will include the commercials and what is described as the unedited film from which the commercials are being created. read more »

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Mexico safer than headlines indicate

August 24, 2011

Written By Christine Delsol

Quick – which national capital has the higher murder rate: Mexico City or Washington, D.C.?

If you answered Mexico City, you’d be in good company – after all, Mexico is a war zone, isn’t it? But you would be wrong, on both counts.

Based on FBI crime statistics for 2010 and Mexican government data released early this year, Mexico City’s drug-related-homicide rate per 100,000 population was one-tenth of Washington’s overall homicide rate – 2.2 deaths per 100,000 population compared with 22. (Drug violence accounts for most murders in Mexico, which historically does not have the gun culture that reigns in the United States.)

Mexico safer than headlines indicate

Mexico safer than headlines indicate

And while parts of Mexico can be legitimately likened to a war zone, drug violence afflicts 80 of the country’s 2,400 municipalities (equivalent to counties). Their locations have been well publicized: along the U.S. border in northern Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, and south to Sinaloa, Michoacan and parts of San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero and Morelos states.

The flip side is that more than 95 percent of Mexico’s municipalities are at least as safe as the average traveler’s hometown. Yucatan state, for example, had 0.1 of a murder for every 100,000 people in 2010 – no U.S. tourist destination comes close to that. Most cities in central Mexico, outside of the scattered drug hot spots, have lower murder rates than Orlando.

It would seem fairly clear – fly, don’t drive, across the border into the safe regions. Yet whenever people say they are going to Mexico, the invariable response is “Aren’t you afraid?”

Media sensationalism accounts for much of the wariness. “Gangland violence in western Mexico” “Journalists under attack in Mexico” and “Mexico mass grave toll climbs” sound as if the entire country were a killing field. The story might name the state, but rarely the town and almost never the neighborhood. And some reporters apparently are confused by the word “municipality” – some of the killings reported as being in Mazatlan, for example, actually happened in a town miles away from the city – akin to attributing East Palo Alto’s slayings to San Francisco.

But the biggest factor may be that travelers looking for a carefree vacation simply find it easier to write the entire country off than to learn what areas to avoid.

The Mexico Tourism Board is working to change that. Efforts so far have concentrated on getting accurate information to travel agents, who funnel the lion’s share of tourism to Mexico’s popular destinations. Independent travelers’ primary source of information is the State Department travel alerts (travel.state.gov), which are finally getting better at pinpointing the trouble spots.

“We are trying to work with U.S. authorities in making these travel alerts specific and not general,” said Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, the tourism board’s chief operating officer. “Unfortunately, they have projected a somewhat distorted image.” read more »

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Valle de Guadalupe By Lorena Mancilla

July 6, 2011

Written By Lorena Mancilla – San Diego Reader

Imagine a valley filled with vineyards surrounded by olive trees. The weather is dry and warm and there’s hardly any wind. There are only a couple of paved roads and people mostly walk or drive on dirt roads bordered with shrubbery. The sounds and sights of the country are subtle: birds, mountains, desert plants — wait, there’s also drama: a turkey vulture devours a squirrel. Oh, well.

Valle De Guadalupe

Valle De Guadalupe

One could be standing in California or it could be Italy, but this place is Mexico; actually, it’s Ensenada, but without the breeze of the Pacific. The place is Valle de Guadalupe, a region with a Mediterranean climate where 80 percent of Mexican wine is produced. The valley is the same size as Napa Valley, but Napa has 40,000 acres of vineyards. Compared to other regions, Mexico’s production is still small. In all of the different wine-producing regions of Baja, including San Vicente Valley, Guadalupe Valley, and Santo Tomas Valley, only 6200 acres are used for wine production.

The history of Guadalupe Valley has been touched superficially by few historians; the original population was indigenous, mainly Kumeyaay. There were also Dominican missionaries, but they didn’t stay for long. In 1904, a group of Molokan Russians colonized parts of the valley and with them came the first grapevines.

During the 1950s, groups of farmers demanded farming land from the government and created ejidos. The ejidos were groups that collectively owned land, which was given to them by the government in order to promote agriculture. At the beginning of the ejido era in the valley, they grew alfalfa, wheat, and other crops. In 1927, an Italian named Angelo Cetto came to Baja California and started to explore the valley. He grew different kinds of grapes and founded a company that mainly focused on the production of brandy. In the 1940s, Cetto produced one commercial wine, but it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the company began concentrating on wine. The serious wine industry in Baja is fairly young, 20 years old. read more »

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San Ysidro “The world’s busiest border crossing” is going to get a bit narrower By: Miguel Sedano

June 23, 2011

Crossing through the San Ysidro Port of Entry from Mexico is a slog during the best of times for more than 17 million vehicles a year, but the trip promises to become even more challenging, starting Monday June 20th 2011 as a number of lanes are taken out of action for 30 hours at a time into July.

Click two times to Enlarge San Ysidro 2014

Click two times to Enlarge.

The first set of closures — four lanes on the east side of the port of entry — begin Monday at 8 p.m. and will last until 5:30 p.m.Tuesday. Workers will be stringing auxiliary power and data lines to entry booths in preparation for the dismantling of the building over the booths.
The entire border crossing is undergoing a three-phase, $517-million expansion and renovation which is expected to be completed in 2014. When completed, northbound vehicle inspection lanes will increase from 24 to 34. Southbound lanes will increase from six to as many as 12.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has provided a tentative schedule of lane closings. Each set of lanes will close at 10 p.m. and reopen about 30 hours later at 4 a.m. The schedule is subject to construction progress:
•    June 22-24: two lanes from the west side
•    June 24-26: three lanes from the west side
•    June 26-28: three lanes from the west side
•    June 28-30: three lanes from the west side
•    June 30-July 2: three lanes from the west side
•    July 5-7: three lanes near the middle/west
•    July 7-9: three lanes near the middle/west
Border crossers can call (619)-690-8999 for the latest information on which lanes are being closed and length of wait times at San Ysidro. Crossers hoping to use the nearby Otay Mesa Port of Entry can call (619) 671-8999 for the same sort of information.

Click two times to Enlarge

Click two times to Enlarge

 

Mexico is also developing a new southbound crossing known as El Chaparral, at a cost of more than $50 million.
If you are thinking in moving to Mexico, don’t think more act today.  We Can Help.  Call today 858-433-0561 or email Miguel Sedano  info@rentinginmexico.com the perfect home is waiting for you.

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The Expendebales Enjoy Puerto Nuevo Style Lobster in Rosarito Beach

May 31, 2011

American channel TMZ aired the visit that Silvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren made to Rosarito Beach, in Baja California Mexico where they enjoyed a Puerto Nuevo style lobster.


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First Look At Salma Hayek & Mathieu Demy In ‘Americano’

May 18, 2011

Written by: Oliver Lyttelton – THE PLAYLIST

It’s always said that when it comes to breaking into the film industry, it’s not what you know, but who you know, and it’s hard to deny that nepotism is rife in the industry. But when it’s meant that talents like Sofia Coppola, Nicolas Cage, Peter Fonda, Drew Barrymore, John Huston and, uh, Clint Howard, to name but a few, it’s hard to complain too much. Today we’ve obtained an exclusive first image of a project that utilizes a number of members of famous film-making families, and it’s looking pretty promising.

First Look At Salma Hayek & Mathieu Demy In ‘Americano’

First Look At Salma Hayek & Mathieu Demy In ‘Americano’

Actor Mathieu Demy comes from famous film-making stock, being the son of French film-making giants Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy, and he’s already racked up an impressive career in front of the camera, in films like “God is Great, But I’m Not,” “Aram” and “The Girl On The Train.” Now, according to a press release from BAC Films International, who’ve picked up all of the worldwide rights to the project, he’s made his directorial debut, on a self-penned project entitled “Americano,” and he’s attracted fellow filmmaking family members to the cast like Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie Chaplin and Carlos Bardem, the older brother of Javier Bardem. But the film will be toplined by Demy himself, opposite international star Salma Hayek.

Demy will play Martin, a man grieving from the death of his mother, and escaping a failing relationship, who returns to Los Angeles, where he grew up, to sort out his inheritance. Troubled by childhood memories, he goes off to track down Lola, a Mexican woman (Hayek) who he knew in childhood, eventually finding her down at the Americano club in Tijuana, where she works as a stripper. Mastroianni will play Martin’s ex-girlfriend, while Chaplin will play an old friend of the family who kicks off his quest.

Demy comments in the press release “”Americano” is a film I have been working on for years. I wanted to tackle a theme that directly relates to my history, my identity: transmission. What do you inherit from your parents? How do you deal with it? And how do you write your own story?” And it seems like he’s using the unique advantages of his own upbringing: “I used footage from one of my mother’s film, “Documenteur”, where she filmed me when I was 8 and was living with her in LA. Those images find a special echo in the film, and question our relationship to fiction and reality. But I also wanted to do a universal film, that will travel and please all type of audiences. That is why I decided to gather a very special cast, whom I must thank for their support and their faith in the project.”

The film’s now in post-production, having recently wrapped its multi-lingual, globe-spanning shoot—it lensed in Paris, L.A. and Tijuana, and will be in French, English and Spanish—and should apparently be ready for the festival season in the fall, so a bow in Toronto or Venice wouldn’t be out of the question. Les Films du Losange will distribute in France, and BAC Films will be the sales agent. It all sounds fairly intriguing, and Demy’s parentage alone is reason enough to make us very, very curious about what he’s come up with.

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