TIJUANA Artists, students and "green" activists are moving into a rundown commercial plaza on avenida Revolución, helping breathe new life to the legendary tourist street.
They are part of an ambitious plan driven by civic organizations and the business sector to form independent districts focused on art, culture and citizen activism in Tijuana's historic center.
The first project of this plan emerged in April of 2010, when some twenty local artists founded a cultural hub called Pasaje Rodríguez Arte y Diseño in an alley that stretches from avenida Revolución to bustling avenida Constitución, between Third and Fourth streets.
Now, they are planning to revive Plaza Revolución, an old shopping center located between First and Second streets along avenida Revolución, whose deterioration and shuttered stores reflect how hard the economic crisis has hit the border.
"We want to fill this space with community organizations that promote art, culture and citizen participation or with businesses that want to be in that environment," said Andrés Méndez, a commissioner in the district called Center for Civic Alliance.
The alliance which has brought together community, religious and educational groups for three years obtained 21 sites that were abandoned or rented in the Plaza Revolución, including three that belonged to the state government.
"We asked the owners to lower the rent for at least one year and then we invited organizations to propose a project that had the spirit of what we were looking for," Méndez explained. "That's how the first three came together."
On Sept. 7, the organizations Jóvenes Unidos por la Sociedad (Youth United for Society), the theater company El Sótano, and Sweatshop Revolución, which promotes green options, opened locales in three offices the state government donated at the start of the project.
Ricardo Arana, of Sweatshop Revolución, said that their new office at Plaza Revolución is home to various projects related to ecology and community journalism that were developed at another location on the city's east side but had to close.
There, they had edited the on-line community newspaper "El Zorro de la Mesa," they sold and stored compost, gave workshops to build solar ovens and organized role-playing games, among other activities.
Hebert Axel González, who directs the theater company El Sótano, explained that the locale they acquired on the second floor of Plaza Revolución has helped them to reopen after the group lost the space it had for 17 years at the Casa de Cultura.
"It's a small space and we can't rehearse there but it's our headquarters and we're going to use it for meetings and administrative work," said González, whose company offers professional development for actors.
The third association is Youth United for Society, which has a reading room for young people and soon will offer a room equipped with computers that have Internet access that any student can use free of charge, according the president of the Civic Alliance, Alberto Sandoval.
The next step in this project, said Méndez, is to attract other community groups to move in to the remaining 18 locates at Plaza Revolución that were obtained with a low rent for one year. That's what happened at Pasaje Rodríguez, which initially rented 15 locales and now has 36 tenants representing a variety of arts.
The president of the Civic Alliance said all the new tenants offer something new for tourists. Soon, opera and other musical projects will come on board.
The hope is that they will contribute to the rebirth of the most emblematic street in the city.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
[sidebar]Center for Civic Alliance
More information about the project to revitalize avenida Revolución is available at www.alianzacivil.org or (011.52.664) 608.4424 (if dialed from U.S.).
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