Playa del Carmen Mayor ‘Very Upset’ With Parking Meter Operator Playaparq

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Mayor Estefanía Mercado Ascencio said she is “not at all happy” with Playaparq, the company that operates Playa del Carmen’s parking meters, over the way it treats tourists and residents, and her legal team is reviewing the concession contract.

“We’ve received complaints from residents, and personally it bothers me a great deal, especially when it damages the visitor experience,” Mercado said in an interview after a city council session. “We are in talks; I am not at all happy, but we have to follow the protocols.”

The goal, she said, is for the company to adjust to what residents need. If that does not happen, the city will have to review the terms of the concession, she added, and her legal team is already examining the agreement.

“They have me unhappy with the way they treat tourists and residents,” the mayor said. “Their experience is very important, because we want tourism to come back.”

In a separate interview, municipal trustee Agustín Aguilar confirmed that the city has already demanded that Playaparq restore its rental bicycle system and has asked it to review the current printed-ticket system.

CFE Investment and Power Outages

Mercado also said the city is continuing to keep residents informed about scheduled power outages by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which has a planned investment of 400 million pesos in Playa del Carmen infrastructure aimed at reducing blackouts.

Luis Herrera, secretary general of the municipal government, said the scheduled cuts are needed to upgrade power lines, noting that many blackouts are caused by obsolete infrastructure.

Mercado added that developers are also working to modernize their own systems, and that the municipality will no longer allow further real estate growth without investment in substations and equipment.

New Unit for Older Adults

The city council also approved the creation of a Unit for the Care of Older Adults, which Mercado said will give older residents a dedicated office where they can get help with paperwork and assistance programs at the federal, state and municipal levels.