Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Good times, bad times at Gunshot Plaza
Tijuana hangout marred by violence on independence day
Tijuana's daily Frontera didn't report the independence-day violence in Plaza Fiesta
“We were at Fresco bar and walked downstairs towards the fountain to, you know, smoke some weed.”
My friend Regina tells me what happened on Tuesday night, September 15, at Tijuana's Plaza Fiesta.
“While we were smoking, we suddenly heard screams and a fight. I turned around and I saw a guy on the floor, two guys were kicking him, while another guy held him by the neck with a gun pointed at his head, shouting threats. We were scared and didn't want to be a part of it, so we hid. I didn't want to be a witness or get hit by a ricochet. We kept hearing voices and saw the group dragging the guy out of the Plaza. No idea what happened next.”
I was there at Plaza Fiesta and was hanging out with Regina before this happened. Somehow I did not see a thing. My Facebook newsfeed was filled with comments about how no one should celebrate “El Grito” since Mexico is in such a decayed state. I was there not celebrating Mexico's independence, but a friend's birthday. The president, Enrique Peña Nieto, was booed in Mexico City as he yelled “Viva Mexico!” outside the balcony of the presidential palace.
In Tijuana, the rain did not stop people from gathering by the statue known as Las Tijeras, which is next to Plaza Fiesta. Hundreds of people were there to see Alejandra Guzman sing, but the Mexican pop singer canceled due to rain. I saw the fireworks as I was arriving at Plaza Fiesta, I also saw two army trucks and an army bus with more than 40 soldiers. The crowd dispersed shortly after the fireworks at around 11 p.m.
A different friend was also there with his girlfriend at a different bar, Paralelo 28. “Oh yeah, we saw what happened from the balcony of the bar, it was a bit after 1 a.m. Mariana called the cops right away and gave them a description of the guy with the gun.”
My roommate tells me the story in the morning from his perspective. “It all happened so quick, for a while they didn't let anyone get out of the area, but then it all went back to normality.”
This is not an isolated violent incident in Plaza Fiesta: on July 25th, a musician from narcocorrido band Los Nuevos Ferraris was shot in public. The perpetrator shot him through the window of a bar. He fled the scene in a taxi libre. The musician was taken to the Tijuana General Hospital and survived. The shooter was never found. Friends were there at Plaza Fiesta that Saturday night; they all told me that everything went back to normal in a matter of minutes after the shooting.
Plaza Fiesta has had its ups and downs through its 35-year history. At some point it was also known as Plaza del Balazo ("Gunshot Plaza"). At the moment it boasts more than ten tap rooms — the center for Tijuana's best craft beer — and is the most popular hangout for young people; however, violence in the area might shift the Plaza's current popularity.
Violence is on a steady rise in Tijuana. The daily Frontera reported on September 16th that a man was killed in Lomas de Tijuana and a woman injured. The altercation in Plaza Fiesta was not mentioned. It also notes that there’ve been five murders in the past two days and more than 15 in the past week. Those are only the murders that have been reported.
(revised 9/17, 11:20 a.m.)
Here's something you might be interested in.
Good times, bad times at Gunshot Plaza
Tijuana hangout marred by violence on independence day
Good times, bad times at Gunshot Plaza
Tijuana hangout marred by violence on independence day
Tijuana's daily Frontera didn't report the independence-day violence in Plaza Fiesta
“We were at Fresco bar and walked downstairs towards the fountain to, you know, smoke some weed.”
My friend Regina tells me what happened on Tuesday night, September 15, at Tijuana's Plaza Fiesta.
“While we were smoking, we suddenly heard screams and a fight. I turned around and I saw a guy on the floor, two guys were kicking him, while another guy held him by the neck with a gun pointed at his head, shouting threats. We were scared and didn't want to be a part of it, so we hid. I didn't want to be a witness or get hit by a ricochet. We kept hearing voices and saw the group dragging the guy out of the Plaza. No idea what happened next.”
I was there at Plaza Fiesta and was hanging out with Regina before this happened. Somehow I did not see a thing. My Facebook newsfeed was filled with comments about how no one should celebrate “El Grito” since Mexico is in such a decayed state. I was there not celebrating Mexico's independence, but a friend's birthday. The president, Enrique Peña Nieto, was booed in Mexico City as he yelled “Viva Mexico!” outside the balcony of the presidential palace.
In Tijuana, the rain did not stop people from gathering by the statue known as Las Tijeras, which is next to Plaza Fiesta. Hundreds of people were there to see Alejandra Guzman sing, but the Mexican pop singer canceled due to rain. I saw the fireworks as I was arriving at Plaza Fiesta, I also saw two army trucks and an army bus with more than 40 soldiers. The crowd dispersed shortly after the fireworks at around 11 p.m.
A different friend was also there with his girlfriend at a different bar, Paralelo 28. “Oh yeah, we saw what happened from the balcony of the bar, it was a bit after 1 a.m. Mariana called the cops right away and gave them a description of the guy with the gun.”
My roommate tells me the story in the morning from his perspective. “It all happened so quick, for a while they didn't let anyone get out of the area, but then it all went back to normality.”
This is not an isolated violent incident in Plaza Fiesta: on July 25th, a musician from narcocorrido band Los Nuevos Ferraris was shot in public. The perpetrator shot him through the window of a bar. He fled the scene in a taxi libre. The musician was taken to the Tijuana General Hospital and survived. The shooter was never found. Friends were there at Plaza Fiesta that Saturday night; they all told me that everything went back to normal in a matter of minutes after the shooting.
Plaza Fiesta has had its ups and downs through its 35-year history. At some point it was also known as Plaza del Balazo ("Gunshot Plaza"). At the moment it boasts more than ten tap rooms — the center for Tijuana's best craft beer — and is the most popular hangout for young people; however, violence in the area might shift the Plaza's current popularity.
Violence is on a steady rise in Tijuana. The daily Frontera reported on September 16th that a man was killed in Lomas de Tijuana and a woman injured. The altercation in Plaza Fiesta was not mentioned. It also notes that there’ve been five murders in the past two days and more than 15 in the past week. Those are only the murders that have been reported.
(revised 9/17, 11:20 a.m.)
Comments