La Romana...filthy..so sad

jeb321

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Dec 12, 2008
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There is an excellent, outstanding tailor shop run by 2 brothers in La Romana that I have been using for a few
years. I drove down a few days ago and was just (I can't even think of right word to use here) disgusted (?) by
the filth in the streets. I know I know this is nothing new and that is what is so horrible. Nothing seems to be
done here. The basura all over streets, on sidewalks, on road. Wherever I turned I had to step over this. Ok. I
just vented. How can this place be run like this. Who runs La Romana and why haven't people yelled louder!
 

Celt202

Gold
May 22, 2004
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My brother and his wife came to visit me 7 ago. I picked them up at Las Americas and on the way into Santo Domingo I told them "This is a beautiful island if you can look beyond the trash."

They didn't really warm up to that.

They've never been back.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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dr1.com
http://www.langleytoday.ca/no-paradise-without-serpents-the-dominican-republic/
a lot of inaccuracies and exaggerations in that article , like " government sponsored school ends at grade five ", however the general observations are accurate. It has always amazed me, and confounded me on how Dominicans can keep their house, cars and bodies so clean yet just throw their garbage everywhere. There are efforts by local government, lions club, and other organizations to educate the general public about the environment.
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
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Yesterday I drove through la Romana two times , once via the old way which has always had a fair amount of garbage on the side of the road that is gathered and burned on past Jumbo to the golf course and then on the return I used the road that goes past Iberia and then the boulevard to la Romana norte and to the autopista . It had been oviously been raining for some time which delays rubbish collection but the only areas that had rubbish were not in the town itself but just outside it and the along the old by pass road. That has always been the case . The town itself looked quite ok . So maybe jeb321 just got to these rubbishy places before the garbage trucks did .
The reason that some of these main entries to the town are often full of rubbish is that some small vans dump their rubbish because there is no official rubbish dump . There should be a free one
 

Kipling333

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Jan 12, 2010
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I think also that if you visited any town or city in Africa or the Indian sub continent , the common denominator is the proliferation of rubbish . The DR is more African in blood and in culture , along with Haiti , than any other country in the world outside Africa . You can see this in every aspect of life here so maybe judgements should not be based in comparison to caucasian countries. La Romana is no different to other places here , just more work available there.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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I think also that if you visited any town or city in Africa or the Indian sub continent , the common denominator is the proliferation of rubbish . The DR is more African in blood and in culture , along with Haiti , than any other country in the world outside Africa . You can see this in every aspect of life here so maybe judgements should not be based in comparison to caucasian countries. La Romana is no different to other places here , just more work available there.

i beg to differ with your remark about the DR being more African than any country outside of Africa itself. not true. most of the rest of the caribbean is far more African, and so is Brazil, which has a larger African population than any country not on the conteninent irself.
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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dr1.com
The street cleaners do a good job in Jarabacoa and the garbage trunks run pretty well on schedule and they pick up everything. One thing though, other than a couple of short blocks in the center of town there are no garbage cans to put garbage in. I have made kids pick up their garbage dropped in front of the school, but it is a learning process that has to be enforced by parents and older children.
 

jeb321

Bronze
Dec 12, 2008
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Yesterday I drove through la Romana two times , once via the old way which has always had a fair amount of garbage on the side of the road that is gathered and burned on past Jumbo to the golf course and then on the return I used the road that goes past Iberia and then the boulevard to la Romana norte and to the autopista . It had been oviously been raining for some time which delays rubbish collection but the only areas that had rubbish were not in the town itself but just outside it and the along the old by pass road. That has always been the case . The town itself looked quite ok . So maybe jeb321 just got to these rubbishy places before the garbage trucks did .
The reason that some of these main entries to the town are often full of rubbish is that some small vans dump their rubbish because there is no official rubbish dump . There should be a free one
Hi Kipling. Actually I was on the avenida where Iberia, Crema , police station also I believe etc are. It really is Sad.
Our car tires were just about sitting on bags of rubbish.
 

Garyexpat

Bronze
Sep 7, 2012
2,105
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Until you change the mentality of the average Dominican (good luck with that) this will continue. About 8 years ago I go to a river near Bani with the girl I was seeing at the time and her family. After a nice day at the river drinking lots of Presidentes we get ready to leave. They were going to leave all the empties there on the river bank amongst the rocks. I started picking them up, then the girl with me and then the family (I am sure that was the first and last time they ever did that).
 
May 29, 2006
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The mayors make all the difference in how clean a city is. I saw the most garbage in SD while taking taxis from one bus station to another. Do they have any kind of regional intercity government, like town wards or districts? You hardly ever see empty dumpsters in the DR, but plenty of full ones overflowing. Seems like a top down problem.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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La Romana used to look clean and well maintained compared to many Dominican cities. It's been a while since I last stopped there, so maybe something has changed at municipal level. In contrast, Higuey is looking much cleaner these days.
 
May 29, 2006
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Yeah, I mentioned how clean Higuey was about a month ago and no one believed me. I saw trucks with Haitians almost every day changing out dumpsters and public garbage cans chained to telephone polls. The mayor has a campaign going on with her face on the side of the garbage trucks. One spot had three dumpsters in a row and I think they're all changed out at least once a week. After the cowboy festival, they did a good job cleaning up the place, though it took a couple days. The park in front of the Basilica gets lots of litter, but they seem to clean that regularly as well. Garbage cans get used when they have them..
 

Eleutheria

New member
Jun 23, 2015
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Yesterday I drove through la Romana two times , once via the old way which has always had a fair amount of garbage on the side of the road that is gathered and burned on past Jumbo to the golf course and then on the return I used the road that goes past Iberia and then the boulevard to la Romana norte and to the autopista . It had been oviously been raining for some time which delays rubbish collection but the only areas that had rubbish were not in the town itself but just outside it and the along the old by pass road. That has always been the case . The town itself looked quite ok . So maybe jeb321 just got to these rubbishy places before the garbage trucks did .
The reason that some of these main entries to the town are often full of rubbish is that some small vans dump their rubbish because there is no official rubbish dump . There should be a free one

Mmmm nope.
We haven't had much rain here at all these days! Just little sprinkles here and there.
The garbage, which is pretty much everywhere, has nothing to do with the rain. It is a lot worse in the first area you mentioned, which is being treated pretty much like a roadside garbage dump by residents. But litter, uncollected trash and the smell of urine on the streets is pretty much par for the course 'round these parts, as I believe it is elsewhere in the country.
 
May 29, 2006
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Higuey. Still ends up in a burn pile as far as I know...

11892051_10206875867952733_3406801015031094799_n.jpg
 

Kipling333

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Jan 12, 2010
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La Romana sucio!!

Hi Kipling. Actually I was on the avenida where Iberia, Crema , police station also I believe etc are. It really is Sad.
Our car tires were just about sitting on bags of rubbish.

ok well it had all gone by yesterday afternoon ..all the way from the Police station to past crema and iberia and then all along the Boulevard.. I am wondering, although at present I do not live there , if it was the day everyone put out rubbish?
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
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The mayor of la Romana started off very well with planting of palms but of course he was stealing much for his own company and is no longer there . I am unsure who runs la Romana now , but I still maintain thatthe predominance of rubbish is on the outskirts
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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Yes something other than 3rd world and race as Moscow is of course Caucasian. Admittedly by using 1st, 2nd and 4rd world we are using cold war terminology. Perhaps poverty would be a better description as Russia is a poor country as well. One Russian politician said that "we are becoming a 3rd world country with nuclear weapons". Of course the inefficiencies inherent in the communist system are another possible factor. Perhaps the lack of trash pick up in both the DR and Russia has its root in corruption and not allowing for free market competition?

i have a different take on subjects like this, and it sometimes offends people. the reflexive answer to filthy streets and cities is to say that the problem is garbage pickup issues. i disagree. i have been to places like Ottawa, Canada, and the streets are clean at 7 am, and just as clean at 7pm. i assure you that the Conde in Santo Domingo is not as clean in the afternoon as it is 5 minutes after they swept it. places are dirty for two reasons

a...people throw garbage there

b..nobody picks up behind them.

i will take bets that if sanitation guys went on strike in Ottawa for a week, the place would still be habitable. if they did that in certain other places, you could not walk there. the rats would eat you.
 
May 29, 2006
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I seem to recall some problems in NYC when the garbage crews went on strike.. they pay millions per year to keep the streets from becoming an open dumpster.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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I seem to recall some problems in NYC when the garbage crews went on strike.. they pay millions per year to keep the streets from becoming an open dumpster.

what happened when the sanitation guys went on strike in NYC was that the garbage bags piles up into mountains on the sidewalks. the stuff was still bagged. it is not like what happens here, where the stuff is just all over the place.