From the Editor’s Desk: Unintended (Premium)

Back in November, just ahead of our return home from Mexico, we were walking back from dinner one night and approaching our apartment when we saw an armada of street construction trucks lined up on both sides of the road.
? Construction trucks?
This was curious. Until that trip, we had never seen any street work done in the area in the roughly two and a half years we'd owned the place, despite the obvious need. There was only one exception: Sometime in the previous month, the city had dug up one road in our neighborhood, about five blocks away. But it had been left unfinished, a grooved dirt surface that slowed traffic and threw dust into the air.

"Classic Mexico," I had thought to myself, not knowing any better. But now there were trucks on our road. What would the morning bring?

Well, this is Mexico, so the morning would bring noise. Lots of noise. And not in the morning, per se: Instead, the trucks rumbled to life at about 2:30 am and set about digging up the road in the dark. Which we could only hear and not see because that road is on the other side of the building. I popped in my noise-canceling earbuds, once again thinking, "Classic Mexico." And as I fell asleep, I was positive from all the noise that they weren't just digging up the road next to our apartment, but were also digging up the main road in front of the apartment that we look down to from our balcony.

The next morning, we got up and went outside to see what had been done. To my surprise, the main road in front of the apartment was untouched. To my even greater surprise, the side road was only half dug up, and only for our block and the half-block south of us. Like many roads near us, this road is one-way only, and it was never marked correctly, with no painted lane lines, stop signs, or traffic lights (at least near us). The city had only dug up one of what might constitute two lanes.

"Classic Mexico," I thought. And based on the one other road that had been dug up but never graded or finished in any way, I was certain that when we returned to Mexico City two months later in mid-January, that our road would likewise remain unfinished. That we would come back to a half dug up road.

That is not what happened.
? Fixed?
When we returned in mid-January, that side road had been completely finished, and for several blocks to the north. It was all new. The city had inexplicably painted very clean lane lines--confirming that this road, like most in this area, is technically two lanes of one-way traffic. It had also repainted the crosswalks. And while it had not added stop signs or lights anywhere--in Mexico City, it's common to see these unmarked intersections where the boldest drivers have the right of way and motorcycles often beep as they drive through, just in case--there were blinky lights up and down the street that are only visible at night.

We didn't realize that's what they were until night fell. What we thought they were at first were...