From an economic standpoint, the news has been good lately in the Pacific coast city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with tourism as well as seasonal and year-round residential development once again booming while the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wane. But the reinfusion of people and money has aggravated longstanding environmental problems in the city, a trend in evidence during the 2023 high season for international tourism. In recent weeks, pedestrians and traffic crowded dangerously deteriorated sidewalks and streets as private tour buses unloaded passengers from some of the 190 cruise ships expected to visit Puerto Vallarta this year. Last year, 184 cruise ships brought 458,318 people to Puerto Vallarta, one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations. The volume did not match the record 613,000 passengers reported in 2017, but it marked a major recovery from the pandemic-induced shutdown of world cruise-ship service from April 2020 to... [Log in to read more]