Dear Sir,

I am responding to the letter to the editor in the Nov. 17-23 edition, from Peter Howarth of San Juan Cosala. I think that even though the skateboard parks are for the young people, they are in public spaces and seen by all of us. As for me, I don’t want to see graffiti. If you attended the inauguration of the park, you would have heard music with English lyrics saying something like, “We just want to smoke our weed, we just want to drink our booze, we just want to   _ _ _ _  our chics, etc.” You would have also seen stickers for skateboard-related products pasted on every light post. In the caption and photo of the Mezquitan cemetery in Guadalajara, which appeared in the Reporter awhile back, the murals there, in less than a year’s time, have been graffitied.

Dear Sir,

It is great to read in the Reporter that the U.S. State Department considers Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta safe for U.S. citizens.

Dear Sir,

As a response to the letter regarding graffiti at the skate park in Ajijic, I’d like to point out simply that the skate park is for the young people. It seems to me that if they want to paint it in various colors or accept graffiti, it should be their choice. If they don’t want it, then they can clean it.

Dear Sir,

As much fun as the new skateboard park is for our young people here in Ajijic it is requiring a lot more work from our very dedicated volunteer crew who keep the villages and highways clean of unsightly spray paint scribble at Lakeside.  It seems that tagging (graffiti) and skateboarding go together.

Dear Sir,

On Tuesday, November 6, at about 2:30 p.m., my 18-year old stepdaughter was returning to Lakeside from classes in Guadalajara.  About a half-block from the city’s Central de Camiones Vieja (old bus station) on Calle Estadio, two men started to follow her.  They caught up to her, put a gun in her ribs, and demanded she open her purse.  She opened her purse and they took her wallet, containing 450 pesos and her identification,  as well as her cell phone, valued at 3,500 pesos.  They then told her that if she screamed, they would shoot her in the face.  They then took off walking down the street.  The men were about 30 and 50 years old.