Tuesday, September 27, 2011

CAPITAL TRABAJANDO

Mexicans' tax dollars at work.  It seems like the centro is undergoing a massive facelift, and the sounds of chisels on paving stones and the beep-beep of dump trucks backing up compete with the fireworks and church bells.

Below is the new roundabout they're making on Universidad, close to where the house-that-is-not-ours-yet is located. 


This is what 16 de septiembre, near the theater we frequent, looks like.  The new paving stones are impressive and much too heavy for demonstrators to throw.  I wonder if, like the French students in 1968, the workers chant "sous les pavés la plage." 


5 de mayo is all torn up.  It's the principal access street to the Plaza de Armas, and getting there by car is no fun:


The explanatory sign below refers to solutions.  Yesterday muddy water from a broken pipe flooded the street.  Not the solution the government had in mind.


I thought the refurbishing of the Plaza de Armas was finished, but it wasn't!


Recycled plywood sheeting, carefully re-assembled so as not to disturb the artwork; directions to the street vendors, access to whom is no longer self-evident; and another explanatory sign, depicting the wonders of the finished product:




All this work involves many men, working mostly with hammers, chisels, wheelbarrows, and a lot of dirt and stones.  Around 1:00 pm they break for lunch and a little snooze, sprawling out over the sidewalk in any bit of shade they can find.  We tiptoe around them.  Who could begrudge them a descanso after working so hard.

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