Estebanh wrote:
When I made my reservation with Matt, he said he did not have the train noise problem any more since he had his guys holding up traffic for the train. Obviously he had to make arrangements with the train conductors not to blow their horn to make that work.
I said from the very beginning that I had every confidence that Matt would do anything and everything he could to rectify this problem, but I have to admit even I didn't think he'd be able to resolve it as quickly as he has. He has taken the bull by the horns by hiring his own "safety staff" at his own expense, something that benefited all his neighbors in addition to himself. Does anyone think he managed to get anyone else in the area to chip in?
As Estebanh pointed out he probably also had to pay off the workers on the train. Clearly, simply holding up a sign that said "Please don't blow your horn wasn't going to be enough to do it when, by some earlier reports some of those guys actually seemed to get some vicious joy out of waking up the gringos in the hotel. At the very least, they probably figured that, if the gringo hotel owner was willing to pay guys to hold up signs and direct traffic in order to eliminate the noise, there was probably money to be had by them too.
But I'll go one step beyond Estebanh said. I think that German Marin, the director of the Transit Police, was also playing for a kickback too. That article at the top of the thread quoted him as saying "I think he (the owner of the Hotel) can not legally do that" and that there was a "clear obligation for drivers to activate the whistle." Sure! That is easy enough for him to say when loud whistles are a much cheaper solution for his department rather than paying to put in proper traffic gates as it should. They couldn't care less about running their trains across busy city streets or the disturbance their whistles cause to local residents and businesses alike. As long as their boss is insisting the train workers blow their whistles, there is only so much payoffs to them can do. I'm betting Matt probably wound up having to do something to get the transit director on board too.
Anyway, hats off to Matt for taking the bull by the horns and fixing the problem. It is things like that which show why his hotel is so popular. He does whatever it takes to make his guests comfortable.