On the morning of August 25, Tijuana bomberos arrived en masse, sirens howling, at the soon-to-be completed multistory parking structure next to the Las Pulgas nightspot located at the intersection of Avenida Revolución and Calle …

The recent heat wave in the region has brought an olfactory offense to Tijuana’s largest wholesale fish market, located on Calle Sexta (6th Street), about seven blocks east of Avenida Revolución. The odor permeates the …

Bulldozer operators and laborers armed with sledgehammers demolished a significant portion of the soon-to-be-revised Puerto de Mexico garita on August 10. The row of buildings — one of which was the destination for deported Mexicans …

An alert American man caught a pickpocket with his hand stuck in his girlfriend’s backpack as they walked along Avenida Constitución around noon on August 12. Jubilant Mexicans filled the area and celebrated El Tri’s …

A July 31 article in Tijuana’s daily Frontera reported that a hotdog vendor was stabbed to death last week following a drug deal gone bad. Police arrested Héctor Hugo García Pineda, aka “El Fat Boy,” …

Riled-up students representing the Mexican national student group #yosoy132 staged a demonstration outside the Tijuana offices of Televisa on July 28, echoing similar demonstrations in Mexico City that have been occurring since last week. The …

Tijuana police stopped four males in a Chevy Lumina with U.S. plates in the Zona Norte on the eve of July 23. Two of the men were arrested; one of the passengers was a 13-year-old …

The Catedral de Nuesta Señora de Guadalupe (Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in downtown Tijuana was bestowed historical monument status on Sunday, July 23. Construction of the church, located on the corner of Niños …

A family-oriented “bike-a-thon” began in sun-drenched downtown Tijuana on the morning of Sunday, July 8. The Tijuana fire department organized the ride to raise about $100,000 for the purchase of new fire-fighting equipment. Tijuanenses of …

On the morning of July 3, a fire raced through a room on the top floor of Tijuana's Hotel Catalina hotel, located on the corner of 5th (Zapata) and Madero, a block away from Avenida …

You can get a beer over the Fourth of July holiday in Tijuana. Even though the Mexican federal election is being held on July 1, and this normally warrants a closure of bars and a …

Mexico and the United States appear to be in a race to see who can erect their new respective border ports first. Both sides have been constructing at a feverish pace. The U.S. border station …

A pickup-truck driver that was set to travel into the U.S. from Mexico at the San Ysidro border station on May 23 was found to have 15 Velveeta-cheese-block-sized packets of marijuana attached to his vehicle. …

Tijuana newspapers reported this week that a former state policeman, Óscar Rubén Rodríguez Gómez, 54, was arrested on April 26 for running a casa de citas (“house of appointments”; i.e., a brothel) in a quiet …

Bullfight protesters in Tijuana used the internet to organize a demonstration on April 22, gathering in the Plaza del Zapato, wearing T-shirts, and holding signs and placards emblazoned with slogans denouncing the notoriously Spanish spectator …

The U.S. State Department has been running a series of small ads in Spanish-language border newspapers’ employment sections, warning would-be job-seekers about accepting work as choferes — jobs involving the driving of vehicles across the …

A spate of baby murders has shocked the city of Tijuana with three grim discoveries around the city over the past ten days. The first infanticide was discovered on Friday, March 23, when police followed …

A Tijuana pedestrian was instantly killed Monday around 8:30am when he was struck by a delivery van caroming off a public bus, a collision ultimately involving three vehicles at the rain-slickened juncture of Revolucion and …

According to Tijuana’s daily Frontera, lack of binational coordination and U.S. budgetary bottlenecks could make the effort to ease border-crossing times a spectacular failure — a fracaso, as one Mexican official put it. Although efforts …

On February 27, residents of Valle de las Palmas warned Tijuana mayor Carlos Bustamante that, if necessary, they would take vigilante action to put a stop to crime if municipal police didn’t come to their …

An Orange Line trolley came to an abrupt halt as it was rounding the curve crossing 11th Avenue, entering into the City College station shortly before 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 11. Passengers stood around, …

Tijuana residents who live in the Tijuana River canal north of the border crossing’s pedestrian bridge have long been a familiar sight to citizens and tourists. From below the bridge, the indigent frequently beg pesos …

When Mexican president Felipe Calderón came to Tijuana on January 20, he signed a decree initiating the first stage of the Zona Económica Fronteriza act, which will eliminate Mexican tariffs that currently make it cheaper …

Tijuana’s streetlight crews have been busy of late. A city worker replaces a bulb on the pedestrian promenade leading to the tourist district. During the street’s renovation a few years back, many of TJ’s street …

Oxxo convenience stores are springing up all over downtown Tijuana. This reporter counted ten while walking the eight blocks along Avenida Constitución from Calle Ocho to Calle Primera (more than one store per block). It …

A recent slow weekend allowed this big tomcat to relax on Avenida Revolución, sprawled out in the middle of the sidewalk.

On January 2, the unannounced demolition of the Tijuana jail was in full progress. Some tijuanenses thought a museum or historical monument would be made of the building, pero no.

Tijuana’s daily Frontera recently reported a 40 percent drop in what the Mexicans call repatriaciones — the process wherein Mexican nationals deported from the U.S. are officially received into Mexico. The paper concluded that the …

The 50-year-old Tijuana River Bridge has been crossed by hundreds of thousands of pedestrians over the years. The structure replaced a wooden bridge, which had undergone several incarnations since the 1920s and was used for …

It is with some reluctance that I write about my recent acquisition of the SENTRI border-crossing card because, well, I got a good thing going. After years of standing for hours in that long, sinuous …

A recent view of the construction of an on-ramp to Carretera Federal 1D (or the Tijuana-Ensenada toll road) in Tijuana’s Zona Norte area. At nearly this point, the highway veers south toward the Playas area …

TJ bridge crossers on the old pedestrian bridge hugged the rails as last weekend’s rain puddles threatened to soak their shoes. (Click photo below to enlarge)

A new edificio (building) is going up next door to Las Pulgas, the famed Tijuana nightclub (named after “fleas”) on Avenida Revolución. Being built over the former Las Pulgas parking lot, the building so far …

The newly painted face at the base of Tijuana’s grand arch, which marks the entrance to the city. The concrete base was originally painted a dull pea-soup green and didn’t seem in accord with the …

Many restaurants and bars in Tijuana are decorating their businesses with symbols that to Americans are emblematic of Halloween but to Mexicans represent el Dia de los Muertos. Thus, we have a saloon on Calle …

The city of Rosarito's latest problem is being described as olores fetidos, or “malodorous aromas,” arising from the white sands of Popotla. The area, according to a report in Tijuana's daily Frontera, lacks basic services …

The large column in the foreground is part of the reconstruction of the San Ysidro border-crossing station. Its length seems to increase every day as steelworkers and welders work on it. Whether it will be …

A Tijuana police motorcycle parked next to the “zonkey” corral, a subterranean manger (on Fifth Street) for the famous faux zebras that are seen posing with tourists on Avenida Revolución. An Asian tour group stops …

September 29, 2011 The eastern end of the new northernmost bridge crossing the Tijuana River receives it first coat of asphalt in preparation for laying in the rest of the road bed. The bridge is …

The beachside city of Rosarito, famous as tourist destination for decades, is having trouble filling posts in its police department, according to a recent article in Tijuana’s daily Frontera. Of some 223 newly graduated academy-trained …

A collapse of scaffolding placed around the old pedestrian bridge at the San Ysidro border crossing closed the crossing for more than 12 hours on September 14, the longest period of time in 30 years. …

A common sight on the calles and avenidas in recent weeks has been the vendors of all things Mexican. Red, white, and green flags, pinwheels, banners, and bunting adorn buildings, balconies, and shop windows. All …

Tijuana’s 2011 bullfight season — during which six events took place — came to a close September 4 with a first in the city's history: all three matadors (or matadoras) were women. The ladies killed …

If the American version Monopoly, the classic board game, seems a bit blasé nowadays, you might want to give Tijuanopóly a try. The city south of the border has just announced that it will be …

Tijuana’s daily, El Mexicano, reported in a front page story this week that the border city is rife with spies from the United States. “Espias de EU Operan en Tijuana” read the 2-inch tall headline …

An enormous gantry crane recently erected at the U.S. Border Station in San Ysidro, hovered above the U.S. landmark in order to begin the precision disassembly of the old 1972 Nixon-era structure in such a …

The new northern-most vehicle bridge, a key segment in Tijuana’s masterplan to expedite border inbound and outbound commuter traffic, is slowly taking shape just south off the ancient pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tijuana River. …

An increase in the number of robberies in Zona Centro — the downtown sector of Tijuana — has aroused the ire of local businessmen who believe the uptick in crime is bad for business, especially …

So far this year, eight prostitutes have been murdered in Mexicali, and according to Carlos Martínez Vieyra, president of Unidos en Apoyo a Grupos Vulnerables (“United in Support of Vulnerable Groups”), 16 “sexoservidoras” are still …

Ever since the introduction of the taxi libre cabs (a system that allows for cabs driven by independent operators), they have frequently been operated by unregistered drivers who have become a growing concern among consumers. …