Celaya, Gto. Announced in 2005 as the “Mega Surprise” by the then president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, now 16 years later, the Bicentennial Park in Celaya only accumulates unfinished works, abandoned areas, theft of lights, railings and vandalism.
Settled on an area of 162,500 square meters along the banks of the Laja River, the ambitious leisure development began with 100 million pesos.
It included green areas, a jogging and cycling track, playgrounds, an acoustic shell, a soccer field, pedestrian bridges to cross the riverbed from one side to the other, an area for dogs and even a natural history museum.
Today the Bicentennial Park is only visited, on average, by 50 people a day, even though admission is free, who go with their dog for a walk or exercise, because there is no program of attractive sports and cultural activities for families.
For 2017, the “Regulations for Environmental Protection, Preservation and Restoration” were approved and the Bicentennial Park passes to the administration and operation of the Environment Directorate.
Precisely in December 2017 with an investment of two million pesos, the hemicycle for the Mexican Army was built, a space that was the headquarters of civic events, with a permanent display of photos and under the protection of the Ministry of National Defense, today abandoned, run down and vandalized.
Afterwards, they tried to give it another new impulse, when in October 2018 and with eight million pesos invested, “the House of the Earth” was opened, but few people visit the site that shows all aspects of the weather in real time in the world.
Legal pitfall
Over the years and the change of federal and municipal government, the Bicentennial Park was not completed, the bridges were left with exposed rods and railings with cyclonic mesh had to be improvised to make them functional.
But without surveillance and over the years, the mesh, the tubes of the bridge in the southern sector were stolen, where lights, sewers and bars that delimit the park space were also stolen.
In 16 years, no municipal administration considered the viability of resources to finish the pedestrian bridges, when neither could any government make the contracting company finish them despite the lawsuit process, filed today.
Can get lost
At the end of the 2018-2021 administration, those who donated the land for the development of the Bicentennial Park, got tired of waiting for the Municipal Government to complete the construction of two water wells, a gully and a layout of streets in exchange for having ceded the property. .
Now the proxies have all the legal right to retake the property, with the option of charging the entrance to the park and making it a private space, since a residential complex, a shopping center and a private university are projected in the area of the nearby properties. .
Possible rescue
There is no project to detonate the Bicentennial Park, but it has all the characteristics to develop an epicenter of attraction. The failed Museum of Natural History could become government offices. Integrate the culture and sports departments to organize weekly events and activities.
