Santo Domingo:World Class City

A few people have argued with me about a comment I made about Santo Domingo being a world class city. What is a world class city? First it has to be among the World 100 largest cities population wise. Second, it should be a modern metropolis with at least 500,000 vehicles. It should have one of the best communications systems in the world with its own Telecommunications network serving an entire nation and rammifications abroad. It should be highly computerized with a network of internet communications. It should have a large international port either by sea or airport with major ship traffic, and its airline traffic should be of world class proportions and a leader in its area.

Here are the facts: With over 140 countries in the world and tens of thousands big cities Santo Domingo is the 72nd. largest city in the world with 3,600,000 inhabitants(source:World Atlas.com top 100 cities) Santo Domingo is larger than every city in the United States except New York,LA,Chicago,Philadelphia,San Francisco,Washington, Houston,Dallas, and Detroit. That is bigger than more than 95% of the cities in the USA. In Canada only Toronto has more people.London is the only British city larger. In Germany only Essen and Frankfort are bigger.In Italy only Rome and Milano are bigger. Surprisingly enough, for those who do not believe it, Santo Domingo is bigger than Caracas.Santo Domingo is bigger than Montreal, Berlin, Dusseldorf and has equally as many cars as any of these cities. Santo Domingo will continue its incredible growth and potentially in 20 years may be the 30th. largest city in the world.

Santo Domingo has the largest Porsche dealer in Latin America, which proves its world class in purchasing power. It has been called the Mercedes Benz capital of Latin America and its has more expensive SUVs than most cities in the world. Santo Domingo has more radio stations than 95% of the cities of the world. In fact, it has so many that the government is closing dozens every month to be able to clear the airwaves.

Santo Domingo has a Vatican Embassy in a major structure, something that few countries in the world can claim. It has a Cardinal who might well be a candidate to replace the Pope. It has a world class cathedral with the remains of Columbus and its colonial and art deco zone(Gazcue)is one of the biggest in the world.Both have been named World Patrimony by the UN.

Santo Domingo is so important that American Airlines is fighting every airline in the world to try to monopolize the largest air traffic of any ethnic group in the world. In fact, Dominicans abroad flying into Santo Domingos Airport is such a huge market that they bring in excess of$2 billion dollars a year.

Almost everywhere in the city of Santo Domingo the most common sight is a cellular phone, putting this city in the top 25 cities in the world in cellular communications, some believe is in the top 10. That is world class.

What is world class? Any city where an apartment in its Central area can command prices exceeding $500,000 to $1,000,000 dollars and there are people lining up to buy them. A city where there are houses as expensive or more expensive than Beverly Hills, and there are lines of people ready to buy them. Any city where marble floor are common place in house and apartments. Any city where there are as many international boutiques as Chicago or Dallas,or Houston. How many cities in the world have the largest Liz Clairborne Boutique in the world. How many have Hugo Boss,Polo Ralph Lauren,Tommy Hilfiger,Nautica, Guess,Oscar De La Renta,Cartier and Gianni Versace boutiques. This is only reserved for big money cities.

Santo Domingo has exclusive Jaguar, BMW,Mercedes Benz,Porsche dealerships and sells almost every exclusive luxury car in the world. You do not have to special-order cars like Lamborghini,Aston Martins,Ferraris,Rovers because we have them in stock and selling like hot potatoes.

Now does anybody want to continue arguing wether or not Santo Domingo is a world class city? Someone, suggested that only in the USA and Europe you can find world class cities. Well, how come millions of Europeans and Americans are flying to Santo Domingo? The fact of the matter is, that immigration wise, there is for instance the myth that there are more Dominicans in Europe than Europeans in Dominican Republic. Wrong! There are more Spaniards in Dominican Republic than Dominicans in Spain. More English and more Germans live here than Dominicans there. Why? Are we world class or what?

More multinationals are moving to Santo Domingo outpacing many cities in this hemisphere and its banking system is as powerful as any in Latin America.

I lived in many US cities for many years, and I can attest that Santo Domingo has more, larger and better supplied supermarkets than most of the cities of the world, including as many as the city of Chicago. Some Santo Domingos supermarkets dwarf supermarkets in New York city. Carrefour for example, is as big as any Pathmark Supermarket in New York and Chicago, LA, Dallas or Houston have no store matching that size. Few cities in the world can claim having a Price Mart. Why did they move here? What is it about Santo Domingo that has every major fast food chain in the world coming here.

So, what is world class then? You may not like Santo Domingos garbage, its slums, its disorganized ways, but its got power, world power.

Best communication, telephones that dont work, water that doesent work, garbarge, roads that lead to nowhere, crime, police corruption and brutality, rampant prostitution.

A banking system that is so corrput that depositors are taking out their money in droves.

Who are you kidding?

Plus thousands of Dominicans lining up at every conceivable embassy trying to get out of the place. Foreigners selling their assets because they can no longer make a decent living.

Lamborghinis, Aston Martin, Ferraris, Rovers on stock!!! Where and for whom??? I live in Sto Dgo and know of only one poor Ferrari in town which is completly lost - no roads to drive it on (to many holes) and who does the service on it - a dominican??? I got a ten year old Mitsubishi jeep and I am happy the mecanics didnt break it yet! (Even they tried!)

Apartments for over a million USD???????????????????????? Where for the hell is that, I think you missed the latest crash in real estate sellings anyway!

So please explain what is selling like hot potatos, because lots of foreigners are stuck with their busniess / houses etc. and can't sell and leave!

Henry

I have noticed a consistant tendancy in the DR to over price real estate. It isnt worth that much unless someone is willing to pay that much for it.

In a recent transaction I was involved in, I man I know was attempting to subdivide a field and sell off the building lots. After selling off 2-3 lots at a high price, he decided that the lots were undervalued and jacked up the price (double). To the best of my knowledge he hasnt sold a lot since....

I suppose I could say then that my lot has doubled in value but who is going to buy it? Maybe some poor sucker... but it really isnt worth that amount.....

I also see farm land advertised for 10 times what its actual value as a farm business. You can't run a farm on 5$/meter realestate.... you would be better off with your money in the bank....

what do you mean:banking system is corrupt and depositors are taking out their money in droves.

Do you really believe that your money is safe in banks in the DR. In order for banks to attract depositors they must pay a certain rate of interest. American Canadian, European banks pay a lower rate of interest because your money is safe.

However, in the DR rates of interest tend to be high on savings accounts, primarily due to the fact that depositing money in these banks is not safe.

A few years ago the banks seized everyones savings accounts, because people were lining up to make withdrawals.

Tourist watcher must be a Dreaaaaamer. who never been out of santo domingo.

Just like there are world class cities, there is also world class misinformation, such as what you just stated.

If all these attributes are true to deny world class status to Santo Domingo, then there are no world class cities.Let me give some examples.

1)Rio de Janeiro just had a protest march so big that it would dwarf a Dominican political campaign rally by the PRD, protesting for the "12 hour apagones" in that metropolis and countrywide blackouts in Brazil. Let it be said that Rio de Janeiro one of the favorite cities of the world has more slums and ghettos than Santo Domingo, and their ghettos are so poor that they lack block and cement construction, which our ghettos have intermingled with wooden shacks. Rio has mostly illiterate indigenas living in these shanty towns and "favelas" whereas even in Capotillo, people can read newspapers and discuss political issues with great clarity. Police corruption in Rio, Brazilia and Sao Paulo, its business center, makes our corruption look like children playing handball. Garbage is all over, crime with their "palomos" and glue sniffing wonders being close to professional thieves with guns. To tell you about their prostitution would insult your intelligence.

2)New York City is the slum capital of the world, the highest crime rate of any top city, and police corruption so vast that several high police officers have been indicted for it making international history. Their brutality is world class. A Haitian citizen was tortured by white police officers and indicted for this crime. Dominicans are beaten and abused everyday by the Police Department, not to mention discrimination against blacks. Garbage in New York is famous, in fact, when they have garbage problems, no city in the world can match its intensity. No wonder so many deadly viruses like meningitis are attacking its suburbs in Long island. Granted, New York water is the best in the world, but NYC has more prostitution than Santo Domingo, including their downtown area on 42nd.St., all along Eight Avenue, Seventh Avenue, The Village, Soho area, 14th. Street, and can easily be found in all neighborhoods in houses of prostitution easily accessible to all.NYC is the #1 consumer of drugs in the world. The only city where heroin is as prevalent as cocaine.The only city I know where young women were raped in its Central Park by mobs in front of TV cameras. Mice and roaches so big and hungry that can only be compared to Calcutta, India.

3)Mexico City: The smog capital of the world, so polluted by acid rain and carbon monoxide that breathing is almost impossible. A sinking city, where its main Cathedral is being jacked up with mechanical supports to prevent it from going down. One of the cities with the biggest case of extreme poverty and dispair. Peasants leaving their farmlands for lack of opportunities are crowding this huge metropolis, perhaps a city doomed to destruction by all kinds of the same problems you decry about Santo Domingo, but worse. And it may collapse again in a major earthquake.The power center of the most corrupt polititians in Latin America and the seat of power of one of the longest dictatorships in Latin history(They called it democracy)

4)Chicago: Its slums in Cabrini Green, the South Side and uptown are heavily infected with crime. Young gangs like the Latin Kings are creating havoc in Little Village, its Mexican Community where drugs and crime are rampant. Its Puerto Rican Communtiy along Milwaukee Avenue is a drug haven. Even a TV series was made of Cabrini Green depicting this life of discrimination of blacks by its Police Department, one of the most corrupt in the world, next to the Los Angeles PD. Its polititians like Mayor Richard Daley are world known for their under the table political deals and one of their most illustrious "citizens", Dan Rostenkowski was recently disgraced and put in jail, and shamelessly given a pardon after serving several years by Bill Clinton. This is typical of Chicago Politics. The water in Chicago has to be purified in a special treatment plant because its source, Lake Michigan is highly polluted with PCBs and other cancerous chemicals. Fish are dying of molecular diseases caused by these caustic agents. Prostitution in Chicago is more easily accessible than in Santo Domingo. In fact, all along Lake Street, Wells Street and the Cabrini Green area prostitutes solicit people right on the streets and policemen charge their "fare". Their prostitutes are sometimes half naked. On Wells Street there are gay clubs where sex acts are conducted openly in the dance floor.

5)Los Angeles, California: What can I say about this city with the most corrupt police department in America. Where citizen beatings, false arrests, false placing of drugs on innocent citizens are everyday occurrences. The capital of prostitution on the West coast with its famous Wilshire Boulevard where prostitutes practicly jump into your cars if you leave your doors open. A city infected with gang crime, discrimination against Latins and temporary farm laborers, shootings both by gangs and police and one of the highest rates of AIDS infection in America, second only to San Francisco and Newark, one of the them also a World Class City. Los Angeles has no water...period. It has blackouts as long as Santo Domingo in their ghetto areas and it is under emergency energy controls because its power sources have not enough energy to supply its citizens. Los Angeles is a disaster waiting to happen. Threatened besides by earthquakes, brush fires and mudslides every summer. Its air as polluted as Mexico City and Denver, Colorado.

I can tell you about many more world class cities that have similar problems as Santo Domingo. That does not stop them from being world class. I can tell you things about some other world class cities that make Santo Domingo look like a paradise, just a few: Calcutta,Cairo,Rome,Bogota,Caracas,San Juan,Havana,New Delhi,Shangai,Lagos,Lima,Moscow,Tel Aviv,Hanoi,Djakarta, and many more with dirty water,traffic disorders,rat and roach infestation on their main streets,thousands of beggars and mutilated people, aids patients walking freely on their streets, city guerrillas and gansters, civil and religious wars, electricity problems, police and government corruption, garbage up to their necks and teenage prostitues openly seeking sex in their streets.

Anybody who thinks these social problems are exclusive of Santo Domingo has never traveled or lived abroad or does not keeps well informed.

I very well realize that these cities also have many problems, I have visited Mexico City, Rio, New York, Chicago and LA and found none of them to my liking.

Compare these cities and SD to Toronto, Montreal, Melbourne, Vienna, Zurich, and you will see the difference.

I