I don't recommend Zona Norte for the squeamish. That sign has been moved to a location that is on top of a garage across the street from this room for reasons I don't know and don't much care about knowing other than it still exists. From the original racetrack in Tijuana - which was on the North side of the Tijuana River back in the 1920's - exercise riders would see the large sign from the backstretch and dream their dreams. For anyone having not read Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscut", the Molino Rojo was - at one time in the early history of Tijuana - reportedly the largest and most accommodating whorehouse imaginable. The view of the old sign from the venerable and long-defunct Molino Rojo is precious. The free toilet paper and soaps that we never use are just a bonus. And it's quiet, all of the noise is restricted to the street, security keeps the riffraff out. Here, while it's tile rather than carpeting, there are two beds, a gas stove, a refrigerator, a closet, a nice shower, and it's plenty large. What we paid in one week to stay over the border in San Diego, we enjoy for a month in Zona Norte. You make money from booze and hookers instead of factories and other businesses. This is what happens when your tax infrastructure is so weak. I have no idea how safe that makes prostitutes (themselves nor propositioning them), but at least the city (and apparently the medical industry) makes money from it. But in the Zona Norte, they contain it, make the girls get cards and pass medical exams. And regardless of what you read elsewhere, prostitution is not legal in Mexico. In Zona Norte it's out in the open, and no where else. Go to a bar somewhere else, and certainly there's a chance of finding some girl who, in negotiated trade, will suggest a hotel. Good luck finding a hooker on the street anywhere but here. Perhaps it was too difficult to contain everything outside of La Zona. Whenever the rest of Tijuana was offered 24/7 cantinas (which has happened a few times in the past two decades), it was taken away a year or two later. The cantinas pay a fine, which isn't offered to anyone else outwards of this area. But in Zona Norte, they figure out a way to get around that. Elsewhere, they open no earlier than ten in the morning and close at three the next morning. The bars are the first thing that don't compare to the rest of the city. This makes sense on a level that you eventually come to terms with. Although, there is a dynamic here that seems rational once you get past the Las Vegas-like hours for all of it to wind itself up and back down. The Zona Norte is here for a reason: to contain the debauchery. At night - or rather, in the early morning - there is none of this nonsense anywhere else in Tijuana. In the day time, this could be any other sketchy neighborhood except for the hookers, who are constantly adorning the sidewalks. I'm walking Elaine up to Calle Segunda to take a bus to the border and go to work. If you need a cop in Tijuana, go to Zona Norte and stand anywhere for a moment and one or more will ride by. People in the streets yell back and forth while taxis jockey for fares, and the police are everywhere. This is their domain, and the taco carts are also crowded and the music pours loudly out of every cantina. They wear far too much makeup and smell as though perfume is applied a pint at a time. Many are young and many are pretty, leggy, and skimpy both in terms of weight and clothing. Prostitutes stand in dimly lit doorways and outside of bars, lining the sidewalks while whispering to potential customers strolling past. Please pray for us that the Lord would continue to guide, protect and open doors as we become a key development resource to the people in Zona Norte.The gritty streets of Zona Norte provide clear boundaries when you enter and exit, you don't need street names. We also are networking with the local shelters, children’s homes, civil associations, government agencies and ministries to extend resources to these kids. We now have a new community center which has been established to be a resource to children who need education and nutrition support. We feel like the Lord is leading us to devote more time in Zona Norte to help children like Maria find resources for education and nutrition. Maria was excited to be in school, but without the support of her mother and with no one to help her she probably won’t continue to get an education. The director was very accommodating and allowed her to come. Maya went with her mother to see if she could get her and her brother into an orphanage…Maya did all the paperwork and went to the civil register and at the last moment the mother changed her mind. She’s 10, she has head lice, she doesn’t know how to read nor write. One of these girls with Maya is Maria (not her real name) who comes to our children’s club that we do on the streets.
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