We have nothing to fear… but gasoline prices

Patrick Osio, Jr., HispanicVista.com:

…a study conducted by the San Diego Association of Governments and California Department of Transportation, “Economic Impacts of Wait Times at the San Diego-Baja California Border,” indicated that “a 45-minute northbound border crossing delay costs the San Diego-Baja California (Tijuana-Tecate-Rosarito-Ensenada) economy $2.5 billion each year. Every additional 15-minute delay adds another $1 billion. So a 2 1/4-hour crossing delay, now fast becoming the norm, means a regional economic loss of $8.5 billion a year.”

On November 2007, the tables were turned, Americans and other countries tourists in great numbers stopped visiting Baja due to security scares. …

The US and Mexican press had a field day sensationalizing the events for several months, which in turn greatly affected tourism and Baja’s economy as over 40 percent of the Baja coastal region depends on tourism. Baja has experienced the economic pain that also punctuates for them the great binational economic interdependence.

Now it seems that despite the media fervor in reporting and sensationalizing Mexico’s problems with drug capos, Americans are flocking back to Baja. Why?

Saving money, trumps fear. Gasoline prices now over $4.50 a gallon in San Diego is available anywhere in Baja for around $2.55 a gallon. And the stampede of US trucks buying diesel fuel at $2.20 a gallon versus over $5 a gallon in San Diego, has caught Baja shorthanded an unable to keep up with the demand. Once again the economic interdependence is evident.