General News

Around 45 people gathered on Sunday morning to participate in the first Jane’s Walk neighborhood tour in Guadalajara. Led by volunteers and offered for free, the annual walks are named after American-Canadian urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs.

Taking his cue from other major urban centers around the world, Guadalajara Mayor Ramiro Hernandez announced a plan to introduce a public bicycle sharing program operating out of 50 docking stations in the city center.

A fire started by day trippers in the Primavera Forest on Sunday consumed 132 hectares of mostly vegetation and brushland and took 200 firefighters and emergency personal more than 48 hours to control.

Firefighters believed they had contained the fire early on Monday but strong afternoon winds rekindled the flames.

Former Guadalajara police officers chained themselves to railings at city hall Monday and began a hunger strike to protest losing their jobs earlier this year.

“If we’re going to die then we would prefer to do it here,” said former commander Juan Carlos Martinez Sevilla, a 16-year police force veteran who was fired after failing psychological and integrity evaluations mandated by the federal government.

Representatives of onstruction firms hired to work on venues for the 2011 Pan American Games demonstrated outside the state Government Palace this week demanding to be paid around 350 million pesos (29million dollars) they say they are owed.

Just before he left office in March Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez negotiated a loan, part of which was to be used to pay off the government’s Pan American Games debts.

If you are a regular, or even sporadic user of Guadalajara’s public transport system, now is your chance to have a say in its future.

The state government has proposed a massive overhaul in the way the metro area’s bus transportation network is managed and operated.  But it wants the opinions of citizens.

As hundreds of fans watched famed rejoneador Pablo Hermosa de Mendoza fight bulls astride his horse at a ring in Tlaquepaque on Saturday, a small but no less significant number of activists protested at what they called “a brutal spectacle.”

Members of Igualdad Animal y Sociedad en Rechazo de las Corridas had criticized Tlaquepaque Mayor Alfredo Barba for promoting the bullfight, suggesting that his position of authority warranted neutrality on the divisive issue.

If you’re a city dweller and have wondered why that hacking cough is taking so long to clear up, a new study on air pollution might explain your plight.

Guadalajara is now the most polluted large city in Latin America, according to an investigation by the Clean Air Institute released last week.