Jobos open again

The entrance to Playa Jobos where the semi trailer was parked last week.

Last Sunday there was a protest at Jobos over the closing of the parking area. Protesters cut the chain that blocked off the drive beyond the semi trailer. They tore the signs the owner put on the trailer and and spray-painted messages like "Jobos is open" and "Enter here" on the trailer.

I saw the trailer early Monday morning but didn't have a camera with me (that won't happen again!). By the time I went back a couple of hours later, the trailer was GONE! All that was left was the spray-painted "Se vende" sign.

We understand the protest - the parking has essentially been "public" for decades. Jobos is a very popular beach, very crowded on weekends and holidays. To not have the 200+ parking spaces available, for all those people to have to find places to park on the road, is very hard on surrounding properties and on people who just need to get through Jobos on the road.

That said, I gotta feel a bit for Willie, the guy who actually owns the property. He's getting on in years and he's been trying to sell the property for a couple of years. There are various rumors about the possible sale. One says a big hotel chain wanted to buy the property (no one knows exactly why - it would be very hard to develop the property, but with enough money, who knows?) and the state (in one version) or the municipio (in another) pulled some version of imminent domain and told him he couldn't sell to the hotel, that the state (or the municipio) was going to buy it. But apparently nothing has happened, i.e., no money has been forthcoming.

The parking area is Willie's land. He should be able to close it off if he wants to as long as he doesn't restrict access to the beach, which he didn't do. He only tried to restrict vehicle access to his property. Everyone was welcome on the beach, just not to park on his land. However, the whole piece of property should be in public ownership, available to the public and protected against development. The state and/or the municipio need to get off their collective butts and make this happen.

A lot of things - especially money - are frozen until after the election and until the new (or old) government is seated after the first of the year. Maybe something positive will happen then.