Yesterday afternoon I took a long walk to the East, through the Chuminopolis and Industrial neighborhoods, or Colonias as they are known here, and came upon the magnificent old train station. The sign you can see in the foreground indicates that the Yucatan state government is sponsoring the building’s renovation and conversion to a University of the Arts.
Merida is composed of almost 350 colonias, according to the great map I found some weeks ago in the Centro tourist district. My apartment is located within Centro.
The street numbers often abruptly change at the boundary of a colonia, which caused me confusion when out walking around until I obtained the map. For example, yesterday I was walking East on Calle 47 which became Calle 13 at the boundary of the Colonia Chuminopolis.
Colonia Industrial, as its name makes clear, is composed of many industrial operations, with homes both humble and grandiose, interspersed and a large rail yard. Chuminopolis is residential, also containing a mix of the humble and grandiose.
Every neighborhood I’ve visited has shops mixed with residential. There are small gocery stores on almost every block, often operating out of the front room of a home, such as the one four doors down from my apartment. Cocina econmicas, or loncherias, are ubiquitous and also often operated out of the front room and/or front porch of homes. And there’s always a laundry or two nearby.
In the U. S. zoning is used in most communities to separate residential, commercial, and industrial uses. It works because almost veryone owns a car, or two or three. The Merida model, which enables folks to obtain the goods they need within walking distance, I think makes more sense and is certainly more environmentally friendly.
Ruminations of an Expatriate 
Hey Chris,The 70’s called and they want you back!Your whiny liberal claptrap make me want to puke!If Mexico isn’t to your tastes then I’m sure you’ll do just fine in Cuba as you mentioned.Uncle Fidel just loves you traitorous ex-pats and Uncle Sam will be better off without you.
Hey, here’s a novel idea for you Mr. courageous anonymous poster. If you don’t like my commentary don’t read it. Perhaps you should stick to Ann Coulter’s bigoted rants.
By the way, I think those who must resort to labeling ideas and people as “liberal” and “conservative” have so little room in their minds that they must place those ideas and people into the neat, little, compressed compartments of their minds. Presumably so they still have a bit of room in the brain to direct themselves to remove their heads from their alimentary tract for a breath once in a while.
Now go press the wrinkles out of your brown shirt and go kill Arabs.
I would be willing to bet that anonymous has a bible in that alimentary tract along with his head. Sig Heil!(sp)
Sounds to me like anonymous was a child of the 80’s. Wasn’t that called the Me decade? Enjoy your imperialist fantasies while they last, anon. They never do…
I have read this comment over and over and I cannot for the life of me, figure out why anonymous felt it necessary to unload on Chris like that.
It doesn’t take much to see that anonymous is envisioned, at least to me, as a discruntled working stiff that could perhaps be a bit jealous that someone is enjoying the way they utilized their life and no longer need to depend on others.
Anonymous jumps down the throat of an undeserving person in such a manner that I envison anonymous once again, with a bomb straped around the waist ready to push the button when he gets close to the crowd. Usually they perfer to go without the mask though.
Perhaps an infiltrator to the US.. or worse, an ex board member to Enron. Make someone else look bad whilst he/she rapeth the country.
I wonder if he/she hath shaven yet.
Sr. Luke de Lucas,
I love you handle by the way.
As always, I could be wrong. However, I believe that the person who left the comment is the fellow who told me during the run up to the invasion of Iraq that he was anxious to go to Iraq and “kill Arabs” (I think, though, what he meant is that he wanted to kill Muslims.) I think your vision of the guy with a bomb strapped to his waste is right on the money.
Fortunately, the last I heard the military wasn’t letting him near any actual fighting or prisons. Rather, he is kept at a keyboard in a neighboring country.