The government have paid vast amounts of money to beautify the center of Puerto Plata and if this rumor is true then this can potentially affect the tourists that visit the center due to potential transit issues.
Just yesterday, after the rain, we drove through the whole Calle Beller, the street that was just recently paved and they also put these metallic poles to allow proper sidewalks on both sides. Half the street was covered in trash, and I fail to see on what particular stretch, what is there to see for tourists for these sidewalks to be used. On many streets in the remodeled city center, they have made the sidewalks really wide with the same poles, but rather than these being used by massive amounts of tourists, these mostly (the times I've witnessed something) are used by motoconchos during traffic jams, so any pedestrians cannot even use these safely... They just take a huge amount of parking space away from the main streets in the city center, with no apparent other purpose... They look really nice when not filled with motoconchos, I actually like the look of these sidewalks, I just wish that there was something everywhere why tourists would go there, and the streets would be equipped with proper drainage and these abandoned, ugly buildings on part of the Beller demolished. That I would call a beautiful and attractive city center.
Back to the topic, I don't mind if Plaza Lama decides to build here, more competition, and of Jose Luis I'm not concerned, it will never lose it's clientele (my opinion), but I just wish traffic issues will be addressed as well. The main street is already congested in that intersection, so if a shopping center will appear here, nothing good can come out of that without proper planning. Nobody can enter nor exit the parking lot in the worst hours...
