We’re here on the border between Tijuana, Mexico and San Ysidro, California. Looking out across the double border fence, it looks as though it’s life as usual in Tijuana; you can see cars driving down the streets, store owners opening their shops for the day, people drying laundry outside their homes.

But it’s what is missing that stands out- the lack of partiers and tourists who used to tread Tijuana’s main drags 24 hours a day.

In fact, tourism in the city has plunged 90 percent since 2005, when it was difficult to walk down sidewalks because of the throngs of American teens and 20-somethings who crossed the border to kick up their heels. To blame? The accounts of drug cartel violence that are printed each day in newspapers across the U.S. and accompanying photographs of tortured and decapitated bodies with notes on them, warning police, “you are next.” Tijuana, once considered an irreverent party town, now has the appearance of an abandoned ghost town.

Three months ago, Tijuana mayor Jorge Ramos recognized this problem by instituting a new branch of law enforcement- the Tijuana Tourism Police. Their job is to patrol the streets 24 hours a day and not only protect tourists, but also serve as ambassadors to the city.

On our recent trip to “TJ” (as we Californians affectionately call it) we saw these police patrolling the streets, greeting shop owners, nodding to passersby. We also saw possible evidence of improvement, as a couple stray tourists we spoke to said that yes, they feel safe, though they still take care only to go out in the city during daylight hours.

Still, nearly every shop we saw was empty, most of the bars were barren, and many of the pharmacies -that used to have lines out the door of customers waiting to buy cheap medications- were closed down. One shop owner we spoke to admitted things were bad, saying “We’re kind of dying in business, there’s no business at all, no sales.” He added that he expected things to pick up- but he couldn’t be sure how soon that would happen.

Tijuana has recognized the perception problem that exists for their city: the question remains, however, have they really begun to fix it?