A beach getaway in landlocked Mexico City

MEXICO CITY — Commentators chuckle that urban sun bathers will choke on bus fumes. A television skit shows a plump man in a bathing suit stumbling around gridlocked cars.

The Mexico City mayor's plan to build four beaches in this smoggy mountain capital has been lampooned as a joke and a waste of money by Mexico's elite, who vacation at ocean resorts. But the mayor's supporters welcome the sand as a city getaway for millions of poor people who have never seen a beach.

The first beach opened Tuesday, luring hundreds of families to soak up the sun, play volleyball and munch on tacos, surrounded on the sand by soaring apartment buildings. Booming Mexican pop music blared from radios.

"This is the best thing they have done in Mexico City in a long time," said Anaberta Castillo, 32, whose six children were romping in the sand and splashing in the pool. "The kids love it."

The jokes about the urban beaches reflect Mexico's sharp class divisions. Wealthy Mexicans pack beach resorts during the Easter holiday, when temperatures in Mexico City are expected to be in the low 90s. But millions earn the minimum wage of $4 a day and cannot afford a holiday.

The plan was inspired by artificial beaches in European capitals such as Paris, Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and Budapest. The Paris beach, which turns the banks of the River Seine into a faux-tropical retreat, met with criticism when it opened in 2002. But it attracted nearly 4 million sun lovers to its deck chairs and white sand last year.

The Mexico City beach that opened Tuesday was located in a park built for the 1968 Olympics, and Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has said the other beaches will be created next to lakes and swimming pools in other parks around the capital. Much of the sand has been shipped in from the coastal state of Veracruz for less than $200,000, the mayor said.

"I don't know why this is annoying people so much," Ebrard said. "It doesn't cost the government much work to adapt spaces so people can have a good time with their families. To those who don't want to use the beaches it seems a bad idea. But to most people, it's a great idea."

Since taking office in December, Ebrard has announced ambitious quality-of-life projects. This week, he kicked off a campaign encouraging city officials to bicycle to work once a month and said he hopes to offer high-speed wireless Internet to the city's 8.7 million residents — though the city struggles to provide basis services such as water and electricity.

Critics include politicians from President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party who say the money could be better spent fixing sports grounds and plazas than creating beaches.