For These People There Is No Wall
California's housing crisis is driving working Americans to Tijuana
By Marcela Valdivia
LIVING IN BETWEEN TWO NATIONS
TIJUANA, Mexico -- When Jim Houliston moved to San Diego, he immersed himself in new experiences south of the border in his free time.
The 36-year-old joined a bike riding group that cruises around Tijuana for a couple of hours once a month. He volunteered to build orphanages with mission groups. And, in one of his most fulfilling roles, he served as a bilingual translator to the wave of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
While visiting tourist attractions and learning more about the history behind the city, Houliston came up with a new business idea. He created Immersion Living Tijuana, a program that helps Americans acclimate to Tijuana by learning Spanish and about Mexican culture through social events, tours and YouTube videos.
Once a month Houliston offers three-hour tours of Tijuana neighborhoods popular among American residents. Houliston meets with people at Virginia Avenue Transit Center on the United States side of the PedWest border crossing and heads out to explore the city where hundreds of working Americans moved for better housing affordability. Each ticket people buy on Eventbrite includes round-trip transportation and refreshments for $30.
Houliston gave Zack Rhymes from Palm Springs a tour of six neighborhoods close to the border back in March: Centro, Hipodromo, La Cacho, La Libertad, Playas de Tijuana and Zona Rio.
Rhymes, who grew up in Florida, is a tax preparer and has visited Tijuana at least 20 times. He spent some visits consulting a doctor for a procedure he could not have in the United States. Tijuana represents an open culture gateway with more freedom that prompted Rhymes to consider leaving the room he rents for $1,600 and move across the border.
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"This is the type of place where it's not too expensive to live and you don't necessarily have to work all the time to keep yourself alive," Rhymes said.
House prices in California are the second-most expensive in the nation. San Diego's median home value in March was $632,600, according to Zillow. The cities with the highest home value in the San Diego metro area include: San Diego, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido and El Cajon.
In San Diego County the housing market continues to rise as demand outpaces supply. The closer houses are to the coast and downtown, the higher the price.
South of the border, new multi-story developments attract Americans with housing and commercial spaces. Many newcomers decide to live in gated residential communities where several cars have California license plates.
"Where I live in La Libertad, there are really nice apartments being built that you know are for Americans like me who earn four times as much money on average and are able to pay that difference in rent," Houliston said.
San Diego and Tijuana are border cities in the middle of a "humanitarian crisis" and heated debate about the need to build a wall. President Donald Trump's border security debate led to the longest government shutdown in the nation's history back in December 2018 and a national emergency declaration in February 2019 to fund a border wall.
Working Americans spend at least eight hours a day in San Diego at their jobs and at least an hour commuting back to their homes in Tijuana. In the United States working Americans who commute across the border have their yearly income security where they earn dollars that stretch in value just steps away on the Mexican side.
Despite the record-breaking number of over 2,500 homicides in 2018, poor cellphone signal, impotable water and a lack of easy access to warm water to shower, Americans continue to make the move to Tijuana with more spacious apartments for a better deal. These working Americans live in between two cities with different languages, cultures and laws for the housing affordability they cannot find in their own state.
AMERICANS IMMERSED IN TIJUANA
Throughout the tour of Tijuana, Houliston shared advice about finding apartments on websites Vivaanuncios and Craigslist for a general idea of prices in different areas. When he looked for his first apartment, Houliston rode his bicycle around Tijuana and called numbers on rent signs to speak to landlords.
"Every opportunity I had to learn more Spanish and to learn more about the culture was just excitement," Houliston said.
Houliston lived in La Libertad in a single $220 bedroom apartment when he moved to Tijuana three years ago. The neighborhood was full of humble Mexican residents compared to other Americanized areas. Houliston said he found that Mexican flavor with bakers selling fresh-baked bread, taco stands in different corners and the sound of fireworks during the holidays.
"I looked on Craigslist for apartments and when I saw the prices I was all in, this was totally something for me," Houliston said.
Rhymes asked if Americans need any special documentation requirements to live in Mexico. Houliston explained how people from the United States drive directly into Tijuana without showing any documents. Occasionally people may get funneled through an area where Mexican authorities inspect cars or ask questions.
When people cross by foot they need to fill out a Mexico tourist card with information: full name, nationality, date of birth, passport number and purpose of trip. The tourist card is free if the visit in Mexico is seven days or less. However, if the stay in Mexico is more than seven days, visitors must pay about $30 to get a tourist card valid for 180 days.
Rhymes was also curious about the process of receiving mail in Tijuana. Houliston shared an anecdote about the time he sent himself a postcard from San Diego to track how long the postcard would take to arrive to Tijuana. The postcard arrived a month later because any mail that goes into Mexico must be processed first in Mexico City and then sent to its destination. Houliston uses an address in San Diego for all his mail, but also recommended a P.O. box as another option.
Houliston drove by the Border State Field Park in Playas de Tijuana, one of the landmarks that separates Tijuana and San Diego. On one side is the sound of children laughing while they play in the sand and on the other side is a complete silence with Customs and Border Protection officers extremely vigilant inside their cars. Houliston suggested to buy Tijuana 22000, an English and Spanish book named after the city's zip code that shows a series of pictures that depicts life in Tijuana.
Centro is the heart of Tijuana's downtown on Avenida Revolucion that attracts tourists to the city's nightlife with a strip of bars and club playing all types of music genres. On the main street, Americans take pictures with the famous Zonkeys. These are donkeys painted with black stripes to look like zebras named after Tijuana's professional basketball team. Houliston said tourists line up wearing sombreros and panchos to take a photo with the zonkeys and leave with a memory from their visit to the city.
Rhymes noticed how both people with California and Baja California license plates drove abruptly. Cars rarely used their blinkers or followed traffic signs when driving on the bumpy roads. Houliston said Americans forget about all the rules they follow in the United States as soon as they cross the border. Americans who move to Tijuana can drive cars with California license plates, but they must have Baja Bound insurance because American insurance does not provide coverage in Mexico.
Houliston mentioned how cops often demand money when pulling American motorists over and recommended to ask for a ticket as a precaution. Houliston said his heart goes out to all the police who come across a series of dead bodies everyday only to get paid a small amount for all their work.
Houliston was once stopped by police in Zona Rio, Tijuana's financial district, after a business meeting. He was walking home past midnight on a weekday after drinking some beers when police approached him. Houliston said police searched his pockets, but they did not ask for money and were simply doing their job to keep the city safe.
Rhymes' biggest concern is his ability to communicate with Tijuana residents in Spanish. He tested his skills at Telefonica, a spot where food trucks gather in an open patio in a hipster neighborhood called La Cacho. This is a place Houliston usually enjoys because he comes across several familiar faces.
Rhymes ordered a poke bowl by pointing at certain ingredients and saying some words in Spanish. Despite the language barrier between Americans and locals, Tijuana residents respect Americans who try to speak Spanish.
Houliston's first time living in Mexico was in Guadalajara, Jalisco where he volunteered in a bible camp for five months and developed an intermediate Spanish-speaking level. Not wanting to lose the Spanish language, Houliston sought his love to learn Spanish fluently in Tijuana.
While Rhymes has previously moved to multiple cities, such as Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, this time he was overwhelmed with information. Rhymes said his only concern is the reaction from people about his plan to move to Tijuana. Rhymes knows he wants to take the risk and move to a neighborhood near the border for better convenience and activity.
CREATING MORE SPACE FOR COMMUTERS
Tijuana's most popular areas are undergoing redevelopments as more commuters move into the city. Miguel Marshall is an urban real estate developer and chief executive of Centro Ventures, which creates urban lifestyle neighborhoods.
The property Marshall acquired in Estacion Federal was an old gas station that shutdown in the 1970s. Now the property, just 400 meters away from the busiest border crossing in the world, includes apartments, offices, shops and an art gallery.
The living space has 10 apartments. Five are Airbnb lofts and five are long-term rentals for commuters. The price for long-term rentals starts at $450 a month and an Airbnb can range from $35 to $100 depending on the number of bedrooms. Renters must undergo a background check and show bank statements for approval.
The new amenities added to Estacion Federal attracts more locals to meet up with friends for coffee or a drink at the bar. Locals can enjoy various activities, from yoga to painting sessions to a farmer's market.
"We are more of a flagship for the neighborhood and they see this as a cool place where they can come to have their events or chat," Marshall said.
Homes in Playas de Tijuana
Last November 2018, Estacion Federal was the epicenter of tension when the United States Customs and Border Protection agency shutdown the border and fired tear gas to migrants from Central America seeking asylum.
The real estate developer said there are pros and cons being close to the border. Tenants heard the sound of canons and saw military practices, but the deluge of journalists and others helped the business.
"We are doing projects as close as the border as possible because we want to bring light into the dark issues happening," Marshall said.
Marshall said some developers in Tijuana avoid building projects in these neighborhoods because they can take years to gain approvals from Tijuana officials.
THE STORIES OF BORDER LANDERS
Joseph Davis and his girlfriend, Iliana Hoyos, lived in North Park before moving to Tijuana five months ago. The couple left behind their $1,500 one-bedroom apartment in a hipster neighborhood for a two-bedroom apartment just blocks away from the sound of crashing waves in Playas de Tijuana. Their new rent is now only $800.
Davis decided to move to Tijuana after visiting the city multiple times with his friends and reading about the experiences of other Americans on Reddit. One day while walking on the beach, Davis called the landlord of his current green two-story apartment when he saw a sign for rent.
The 30-year-old only showed proof of income in San Diego and a form of identification to rent the apartment. Meanwhile, some landlords require Americans to have a cosigner from Mexico who owns property in Tijuana.
"Nobody ever talks about the people who live down here and cross everyday to go to work when they're talking about the government shutdown or building a wall," Davis said.
Davis works at Upper East Bar, a rooftop bar in the Kimpton Solamar Hotel in downtown San Diego. He crosses the international border by foot Monday through Friday using a Mexico tourist card he renews every 180 days.
To avoid waiting in line at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Davis applied for the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection in August. The card will allow Davis to access a faster line for people vetted by the government.
Davis' total commute from Playas de Tijuana to downtown San Diego is about an hour and 15 minutes. He starts off his commute ordering an Uber that ranges from $5 to $7 for an eight-mile ride.
Twenty minutes later, Davis arrives at the PedWest side of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. A Custom and Border Protection officer was surprised when Davis said he commuted to work from Tijuana. The officer questioned if whether he even saved money to make the commute worth it.
The officer was even more surprised when Davis told him how much he paid for a two-bedroom apartment next to the beach. The officer asked how much he would pay for a single-bedroom apartment and Davis said he could get an apartment next to him for $400 and the officer nodded in approval.
From there Davis jumps directly onto a $5 round trip trolley ride. After 13 stations and a 35-minute ride, Davis gets off on Park and Market station where he walks six more blocks to reach his destination.
To view map, click here.While other commuters may check the weather before heading to work, Hoyos checks the Border Traffic application on her phone. Hoyos usually calculates what time she needs to leave the apartment to be at work on time based on the border time waits and videos of the line.
Hoyos works at The Patio on Lamont in Pacific Beach and spends anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours waiting in a long line of cars to get to work. However, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was another story when it took six hours to cross as people tried to drive back into the United States after a three-day weekend.
She drives directly to work to avoid taking an Uber to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the trolley and then a bus to work. Also, by the time Hoyos finishes closing the restaurant around midnight, the trolley no longer operates. From her work it takes about 35 minutes to make about a 30-mile drive back to her apartment at night.
While waiting in line a series of vendors sell food and kids juggle balls to earn money. Hoyos usually enjoys buying a cups of fruit topped with lemon, salt and chile on her way to work. To kill time Hoyos keeps a book in her car to read or does Sudoku number-placement puzzles.
Hoyos said the only time a Customs and Border Protection officer stopped her was when the officer noticed she switched her Oregon license plates to California license plates. Occasionally officers inspect her car and ask to open the trunk, but the most common question they ask is if she has anything to declare.
When Hoyos crosses the border in less than an hour she runs errands at the grocery store or stops by her P.O. box in downtown San Diego. She likes buying products she doesn't find in Tijuana such as Glade candles, shallots or chicken stock. Hoyos said her boss is understanding about her commute if for some reason she runs late to work.
When the couple first moved to Tijuana, it took them time to adjust seeing people live in rural areas and parts of the city with dilapidated buildings next to new coffee shops.
"It's definitely been a humbling experience and the people who are able to come down here should see it for themselves," Hoyos said.
The couple was also not familiar on how to turn on the boiler to heat water when taking a shower.
"The hot water is the biggest pain in the morning when it takes two minutes to heat up and in the U.S. it's automatic and you don't have to worry the hot water will cut out on you," Hoyos said.
On the weekends the couple spends time with another American couple going out for dinner. Sometimes Hoyos' mom visits Tijuana and the couple shows them around their favorite spots in the city.
Despite the long waits at the border either by foot or by car, the monthly savings working Americans accumulate makes their commute bearable. Immersion Living Tijuana creator wonders when the day will arrive when San Diegans are knocking on Tijuana's door looking for economic opportunities. Houliston hopes for a future with more binational relations where Americans know the culture and language of their Mexican neighbors.