Tijuana Has Tourist Bureau That Works

    On Sept. 29 of last year, a flimsy, unimpressive booth was erected at 390 Avenida Revolucion, downtown Tijuana's busiest thoroughfare.  On it was tacked the sign, "Tijuana Tourist Bureau."

    It was a humble undertaking.  It had no city, state or federal money behind it.  Its originators — the men who paid for its construction, its services and the salaries of responsible Tijuana merchants, tiered of being a part of the infamy of the corrupt border city.

    It's questionable whether they knew, at the beginning, exactly in what way their effort might help cure a bad sore on Tijuana's reputation, or how successful it would be in luring back the estimated 5 million potential tourists who avoided "TJ" in 1959.

    But the entries in the booth's logbook today seem to supply much of the answer.  Abbreviated, here are a few of the dozens of troubles brought to the booth's attendants by tourists:

    "There are two sides," Tijuana's new vigilante of community morals added, a little sadly, "to every story."

    Dec. 7, 1959:  Two tourists, R.A. and F.C., reported that they paid taxi driver, Badge No. 90, $40 for what was represented as "French movie."  Tourists complained that movie was "Mighty Mouse" comedy.  Taxi company contacted.  Driver returned $40 to tourists, was suspended one month.  No police contact.

    Jan. 4, 1960:  Mr. K.H. of La Jolla involved in minor auto accident with '57 Buick driven by cousin of ex-Baja California Gov. Braulio Maldonado.  Police called in, determined that Maldonado's cousin was at fault.  Tourist was paid $90 damages on spot.

    Jan. 2, 1960:  Mr. R.H. of Pasadena complained he was overcharged in restaurant for two orders of inch-thick fried ham.  Bill was $6.75.  Booth attendant went with police officer and tourist to restaurant, confronted owner, who became indignant, claiming price was fair.  Owner refused to reduce bill, was given 15-day jail term.  Tourist was given $3.50 "refund" out of tourist bureau funds.

    The men who run the tourist bureau do so with a rare realistic attitude.  They accept cases involving prostitutes and "French movies" as readily as cases involving overpricing, lost children or traffic accidents.

    The bureau recovered $15 for a Peoria (Ill.) lady who wrote that she had paid for merchandise in a small Tijuana shop which was never mailed to her.  It recovered $10 for a Dayton (O.) man who claimed he was shortchanged in a restaurant, and, on the same day, it recovered $10 for a sailor who claimed a prostitute ditched him after taking his money.

    It helped a woman conduct a bar-to-bar search for her drunken husband.

    Alfredo Escobedo, who heads the 100-man bureau of merchants, told me yesterday, "We are working hard to clean the vice out of our town, but at the same time, we must be honest with ourselves about it.  You cannot cover the moon with a finger."

    At present, the bureau's booth is open from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. except Tuesdays.  Soon, Escobedo hopes, it will be operating 24 hours a day.

    Among its proudest accomplishments is the raising of the town's commercial ethics.  "No more phony Swiss watches, sterling silver or French perfumes," he said.  "We started our own educational conferences to impress on the merchants who weren't cooperating that it's better business to have satisfied customers who come back than to make one quick profit."

    So far, the people, the press and the police have co-operated nearly 100%.

    "Not long ago," Escobedo told me, "I was talking with the captain of Tijuana's traffic division, pointing out that, occasionally, respectable tourists drank too much in Tijuana and that it would be good public relations to let them sleep it off in the station now and then rather than arrest them.

    "That night," Escobedo continued, "the captain called me.  'I've got one for you,' he said.  'A schoolteacher.  He's just waking up.'

    "When I arrived at the station, the schoolteacher was screaming at the captain, accusing him of stealing a $20 bill from him.  He was very abusive.  I calmed the man down and finally got him to search in all of his own pockets for the missing $20.

    "He found the bill in his breast pocket."  Escobedo sighed.  "Then he walked out of the station without so much as a 'thank you' or an apology.