Old Juan Dolio

Steve Pindar · #1 03-26-2007, 08:13 PM

I was recently in Juan Dolio for the first time since 2000. To say it was different from the JD I remembered (and loved) would be an understatement. Now everything I have been reading in the threads makes more sense. Personally, I miss the Hotel Metro, and the old JD with its slower pace, lack of high rises, etc. Maybe I am the only one who feels this way. I would like to hear what others have to say.

MommC · #2 03-26-2007, 11:14 PM

Yep.....that's what quite a few of us have been saying Steve...ppl like dulce and juanita's mom, myself and many others I've spoken to this year who are frequent visitors to Juan Dolio.
Heck even lots of Dominicans from the capitol and San Pedro are sad to see the changes.
That's life...the only thing certain is death, taxes and change - whether we like it or not!!

Matilda · #3 03-26-2007, 11:59 PM

They (whoever 'they' are) tell those of us who live here it will be better. I doubt it. As they knock down the hotels there are far less tourists. Tourists mean less business. The restaurants, bars, shops are going out of business. At the moment it is more like a ghost town, full of dust from construction. And who is buying these new apartments? Foreigners who come for 2 weeks a year, and who try to let them out for ridiculous sums, or rich Dominicans who come for the weekend and don't go out. And in the meantime, no light in the streets, the streets are full of holes which the people doin gthe construction make no effort to fix, they take over our access to the beach and some private company decides who can enter the beach and what you can take with you...... It stinks. And no doubt I will be forced to leave here too when they try and turn us into a gated community. If we had wanted to live in a gated community we would have bought a house in one. But they say it is progress.....all I know are a few rich b***** are getting even richer at the expense of a lot of ex pats, Dominicans and Haitians.

Matilda

MommC · #4 03-27-2007, 12:05 PM

Aaaaaamennnn!!

Pinky101 · #5 03-30-2007, 11:16 AM

Matilda and MommC, you guys are killing me.

Matilda, you have a good point!

NALs · #6 03-30-2007, 03:15 PM

Folks, get over it!

Look, we all want to be young and beautiful forever, but will it happen????

Life is change, whether we like it..... or not!

-NALs

dulce · #7 03-30-2007, 05:58 PM

Nals.. You don't live there and have never lived there so you can not relate to the people who do or have lived there.
I have my own strong opinions against the building of such glorified highrise apartment buildings on the beach. Others have stated how it is effecting what little business is left in JD. I see it getting worse for the smaller hard working class business owners.
I enjoyed living across the street from the beach and still having a "buena vista". Now I would only see a high rise building with tons of more cars.
Crime is up in JD and no other improvements have been made so I don't see that as a selling point. The building has only driven up the costs of the old apartment rentals (which were not renting good to begin with). Heck, just look at what they are selling the houses for in the metro area. $650 grand! Those people did not pay $100 grand for them a few short years ago. What makes them worth so much? The new highrises? It will be interesting to see to many of the new places remain empty.
OH SHEEEEEEEEET you got me goin' on a roll now!
Change is NOT always a good thing.

Matilda · #8 03-30-2007, 10:26 PM

Nals. As Dulce said "you don't live there". Just imagine the same colmado you have been to for 20 years. No longer there. Why? 'They have just told him as he has a 'grass' roof it is no longer allowed on the Boulevard in Juan Dolio. He has to change it or leave his business. All shops, bars, colmados, whatever have to change their roofs to zinc. very few people can go to the beach, which yes is fabulous. IF you are allowed on - no food, no umbrella, no pets - just you and your towel. if you have guests staying with you, they can't go to the beach. Sorry, but when I last looked, the Dominican Republic belonged to Dominicans, not to this new Mafia, and that is what it is. Imagine your favorite restaurant gone, your Dominican friends houses bulldozed to the ground, and they too have gone. I am not joking. In the last week I have lost 60 clients in my colmado as their houses have been razed to the ground, and they have had to leave. I have no problem with change, I have seen it all over the world, and yes, it can be difficult, but I have a problem with me and Dominicans being forced out of their houses and their businesses by a rich US/Dominican third party, who have just decided that Juan Dolio with its proximity to Santo Domingo would make a great 'Miami South Beach" so lets just do what we like, to hell with the locals and ex pats who live there, get rid of them and move in our guys.

I feel better now!!!

matilda

MommC · #9 03-31-2007, 12:06 AM

I did state in one of these threads that nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and change!
Some change is good....like when the sweage treatment plant and plumbing go in! This will be very good!
Clearing out the rif raf and cleaning up the area.....this will be good. I hate seeing all the garbage littering up the street and beach and vacant lots.
Not being able to walk down the street safely is NOT good....but maybe when the area becomes a gated community it will be. Do I want to live in a gated community - no I didn't or I would have bought in one, but in todays' world I might not have a choice....anymore than I have a choice when I look out my window and see drug deals taking place across the highway.
You see NALS, it's not really the change we don't like- it's the forces behind the change that has many of us upset.
Yes I'd like to see a nice, clean,well organized, well maintained eatery on the beach than a coal fired, deep fry pot with months old oil in it. However I realize that when that old oil pot is forced from the area, a family may go hungry.
When I see tattered umbrellas and scuffed up plastic chairs being barred from the beach it definitely improves the bella vista, but a vendor had just lost one of his main sources of income.
I look forward to the positive changes but feel disheartened when I realize the negative impact they will have on many impoverished Dominicans.
Is the world we live in only for the rich????
Where is paradise for the poor????

dulce · #10 03-31-2007, 08:06 AM

''They have just told him as he has a 'grass' roof it is no longer allowed on the Boulevard in Juan Dolio. He has to change it or leave his business." What to Hell are they thinking? That's just crazy, the airport in Punta Cana has a grass roof the last time I looked. It creates a Dominican image and reminds people they are living in a small paradise.

"if you have guests staying with you, they can't go to the beach." What to Hell are they thinking? I thought ALL the beaches were public in the country. I went to the beach daily when I lived there and entered the beach anywhere I wanted to with WHOEVER I wanted to go with. Everyone in town knew the faces of the residents.

"In the last week I have lost 60 clients in my colmado as their houses have been razed to the ground, and they have had to leave." What to Hell are they thinking? The 60 Dominicans or Hatians forces to relocate were probrably the hard working people who did service jobs in the area.

I need to start a new thread now because what my next question is: Where is there a nice small town on the beach to live in the DR for a sensible price?