Sosua Beach Bar's Closing?

Simon & Nicky

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Feb 3, 2004
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What the hell is going on? First Cabarete riots and demolition and now I hear they're throwing the owners out of the beach bars? Anyone got some proper, informed, (inside maybe), detailed information?

If another hotel has bought the beach it's a bloody outcry - that Bast**d government are just too bad. This sucks :disappoin
 

Robert

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Simon & Nicky said:
What the hell is going on? First Cabarete riots and demolition and now I hear they're throwing the owners out of the beach bars? Anyone got some proper, informed, (inside maybe), detailed information?

If another hotel has bought the beach it's a bloody outcry - that Bast**d government are just too bad. This sucks :disappoin

FYI: You cannot buy a beach in the DR.
 

Escott

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Jan 14, 2002
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These bars and shops are NOT on the beach but on private land. They have no titles to these shops and have been given notice now for over 2 years that they will be removed.

They know that they are there illegally and bars have been changing hands very recently with the new owners knowing full well that they are buying NADA but they buy them anyway. It is there money to burn and if that is what they want to do it is exactly what they should do. I just can't believe the money and improvements that have been going into some of these businesses under these circumstances.

The Land behind the beach is owned by the people who own the new hotels, the shops along the beach road on the right going down hill and the new convention center/casino under construction. They also own the underlying land on the left side of the road going down to the beach. Hell they own the road and have been charging for parking at the beach. Behind the land which is the closest to beach front is another strip on the highway and that is owned by a different person altogether.

I think it is inevidable that the shops will be torn down sooner than later.

Some people think it will be before the government goes out of office and the new one comes in. I think it will be more like the Spring before anything happens because they are tied up with the construction of the Casino/Convention Center and wont look that way till it is complete. This is just a personal opinion based on how I would handle the situation if I were in their shoes. Why even go through the trouble until you are ready to build?

So, if it is private land and these people are just squatters with 2 years of notice, which seems to be the case, is it fair to throw them out and bulldoze these shacks? Maybe this question should be in a separate thread:)

Scott
 

BushBaby

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Jan 1, 2002
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Escott said:
These bars and shops are NOT on the beach but on private land. They have no titles to these shops and have been given notice now for over 2 years that they will be removed.

They know that they are there illegally and bars have been changing hands very recently with the new owners knowing full well that they are buying NADA but they buy them anyway. It is there money to burn and if that is what they want to do it is exactly what they should do. I just can't believe the money and improvements that have been going into some of these businesses under these circumstances.

The Land behind the beach is owned by the people who own the new hotels, the shops along the beach road on the right going down hill and the new convention center/casino under construction. They also own the underlying land on the left side of the road going down to the beach. Hell they own the road and have been charging for parking at the beach. Behind the land which is the closest to beach front is another strip on the highway and that is owned by a different person altogether.

I think it is inevidable that the shops will be torn down sooner than later.

Some people think it will be before the government goes out of office and the new one comes in. I think it will be more like the Spring before anything happens because they are tied up with the construction of the Casino/Convention Center and wont look that way till it is complete. This is just a personal opinion based on how I would handle the situation if I were in their shoes. Why even go through the trouble until you are ready to build?

So, if it is private land and these people are just squatters with 2 years of notice, which seems to be the case, is it fair to throw them out and bulldoze these shacks? Maybe this question should be in a separate thread:)

Scott

WOW!!!!
That changes a WHOLE LOAD of ideas I had about Sosua!! You are saying that the road from La Rocca restaurant down to the beach is in fact now private land? Obviously the Sosua Town Council sold the road when the deal was struck with the new Hotel Owners some two or three years ago & from that point all the shops & stores on that road were "squatters" & selling from there illegally?
Further, that the area at the back of the beach (that under the trees & over 60 meters from the shore line) is now private property? This means that the Sosua Beach Traders Association should not have been calling themselves that as they were NOT on the beach! Do you know if they have been offered facilities in the soon to be erected shopping plaza - or is that off now?

Is the land down from the main road owned by the New Hotel owners too or can visiting Domincans (& daytrippers from outside Sosua) still get down to the beach? Do you know if the Los Charamicos entrance to the beach will be kept open to allow entrance to the beach? I would have thought that the closing of Sosua Beach to all except the visitors to the new hotels, would be the death nell for Sosua?

This evenings reports about the army being in place to start tearing down the casitas tomorrow morning suggests you are wrong on your timescales - I HOPE you are wrong on the other matters too & that Sosua Beach will be allowed to continue (basically) as it was, just a bit better organised! Regrettably, after Friday's debacle, lies & excessive force of military, I don't think you are wrong about "Money Talking" & forcing a new "backside" to what was the Sosua face! - Grahame.
 

Nelly

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Jan 1, 2002
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I heard that they have started demolition. Is this true? If so, how very sad. The casitas add so much character to Sosua. I will really miss them and hope that the people who work there do not suffer too much hardship as finding a job right now is very difficult.
 

Rocky

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Apr 4, 2002
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Just a rumour.

Nelly said:
I heard that they have started demolition. Is this true? If so, how very sad. The casitas add so much character to Sosua. I will really miss them and hope that the people who work there do not suffer too much hardship as finding a job right now is very difficult.
There is little doubt in my mind that it will happen, one day, and I don't know when, but this is just a rumour started on another website. They billed it as breaking news a couple of nights ago that the cops and military were there at approx 10:40PM, ready to tear everything down at 3 AM, but it was just a made up story. I guess somebody is trying to spread panic.
The casetas are still there and the vendors are trying to negotiate to stay, but I really think that it's just a matter of time.
 

Escott

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The ownership of the road and casitas hasn't changed and they have always been squatters and had been served notice that they are to leave the beach over 2 years ago and many times since then.

For those of you who think 150 shops of the same stuff is culture I guess I have a difference of opinion. I don't know what it will look like in 5 years but I will bet it will look much different and that Sosua is a bustling and thriving town again.

Do you feel sorry for people who bought property that had no title even though they new about it in advance? I guess I will feel sad for them but I think they made the wrong moves and were gambling to begin with. When you flip a coin and call it you will win only half the time.

Frankly the only thing they have to protest is their own poor judgement knowing full well they bought the last persons rights only and nothing underneath.

Scott
 

Rio~San~juan

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hi

i think this is so sad. when i think of sosua i dont think of it as just a beach and stuff you know i think of it as a fun place to go to. you meet so many nice people there the vendors and bars are what make sosua Sosua in my eyes.

i thinkt hey should leave these people i mean there just trying to make a living. and here is someone with alot more money than them trying to nock them down causing them to maybe even loose all means of living. if they do nock these vendors down and leave no where for people to go what will happen. i dont think this is a good idea. im sure they can do without another hotel at sosua!

what does everyone else think?

Natacha
 

toneloc24

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Mar 8, 2004
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Need facts, not opinions here

Can anyone in Sosua confirm/deny the existence of an increased military presence near the beach or casitas?

Can anyone confirm/deny that the casitas have taken any action to prevent this?

Has anyone witnessed anything to the likes of the claims being spread?

Just asking for facts, not hearsay. Please assist with clarification on the matter. It would be great to know what people will be walking into if they are going down there this weekend. A business-as-usual environment, or a potential powderkeg situation.
 

Rio~San~juan

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in my opinion the vendors make sosua what it is but each to there own.
im sure if people didnt make comments to your wife then you would feel the same.

you have to love sosua. i wish there was something i could do for these people there going to be out of jobs, the little money they make is going to be taken away from them.

people just look at if from your point of view. say you were a dominican and your vendor was your only mean of income, it was your live. how you feel if you knew that was going to be taken away from you. what if these workers cant offord to eat, to send there children to school. i think this is a MASSIVE mistake.

it should be thought over again!

stupid people wanting to make a new hotel. who cares about a new hotel, what about the people. maybe they will get a job there but working for someone else is nothing like working for yourself.

i think it is so awful and its breaking my heart. :dead:
 

Escott

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toneloc24 said:
Can anyone in Sosua confirm/deny the existence of an increased military presence near the beach or casitas?

Can anyone confirm/deny that the casitas have taken any action to prevent this?

Has anyone witnessed anything to the likes of the claims being spread?

Just asking for facts, not hearsay. Please assist with clarification on the matter. It would be great to know what people will be walking into if they are going down there this weekend. A business-as-usual environment, or a potential powderkeg situation.
They have had 2 years of notice to leave property that they do not own. Nothing has happened as of yet but it will at some point. You have nothing to worry about if you go down there. When the preverbial doodie hits the fan they will do it early in the morning before the people get to the beach.
 

Rocky

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Harrassing

JDJones said:
To be honest with you, I love Sosua beach, but I hate the vendors. If I had a quarter for everytime some idiot made disparaging comments to my wife while she is walking with me, I could have bought a nice house in Sosua long ago.
Just let me still have access to the beach!
I have made Sosua my home for over 10 years now and I only go to that public beach once or twice per year, for that very same reason. It get's old and tiring to not be able to walk down to the beach without all these dudes all over you to buy something, grabbing you by the arm and getting upset if you yank your arm back.
I'm not an unsociable guy, but I would like strangers to leave my body alone, (beautiful babes excepted).
There may be some who like the caseta charm, but there may be just as many who would like to see it cleaned up and less aggressive, but the truth of the matter is that it is not our decision.
Someone owns the land and has the right to build what he wants on it.
My guess is that it will be an improvment, but it's just a guess, of course.
 

Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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My husband had always believed that this land belonged to the ayuntamiento? Did they sell to Gustavo Tavares and did this happen within the last 3 years?
 

james

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Beach Bars

Gustavo Tavares (Who used to own the El Gallo in Santiago where the downtown La Sirena is now plus a few blocks around there) has been the owner of the land behind the beach for at least 30 years or so. As I have not spoken to them for at least 4 years or so they may have sold it....to the hotel or whomever...but it has never been the Ayuntamiento that were the owners.
The land on the other side of the highway opposite the beach by the way is called Reparto Tavares as they were the original owners and developers of that land.
 

Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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If nothing has changed, then, doesn't the strip of casetas along the beach belong the municipality of Sosua? Everything behind the wall belongs to Tavares, but between the 60-meter beach cutoff and the wall, says my husband, the land is the property of Sosua. Apparently, when the caseta constructions began, you had to get your papers from the ayuntamiento to build and be legal. Subsequently, those who sold their casetas were selling their business as opposed to a land title.

I don't see how they can be called squatters, in any case, because they pay taxes to the ayuntamiento, the casetas are all numbered and orderly, and there's even an officially recognized Beach Vendors' Association. That's squatting?

In any case, I won't be surprised when the deal goes down, although it would have to be the surest of deals for them to go ahead and do it. And I know many caseta-owners say they won't be taken out alive, and people have told me about the profusion of guns in Sosua lately, but I wonder how brave they would ulitimately be faced with the kind of thugs and heavy equipment that assaulted La Cienaga in Cabarete.

(PS The casetas on the strip of road from La Roca down to the beach, where all the paintings are sold, are certainly the property of Tavares. These caseta-owners have long known they couldn't stay there and there have been long-standing rumours about building a car park there.)
 
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Lambada

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My understanding coincides with yours Jane J - viz that there is a difference between the businesses on the strip of road, and the businesses on the beach.
BTW many of the Cabarete people had titles, paid taxes etc but that'll get jumped on here, so I'll PM you what I know.
 

james

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Beach Bars

Just because the bars etc pay money to the city hall does not make it legal.
The city hall is taking money for something illegal...they have no rights legally to allow it but its done in many places in the DR...they are just more Govt theives as most here know.
And yes the part where the casitas are is not the same as the land behind the beach. (WHERE THE WALL SEPARATES THEM)

Just the same as Sosua Park was illegally given/sold to the hotel...that was Jewish land given to the town of Sosua TO REMAIN FOREVER AS A PARK.

I beleive the title was given by a crooked lawyer who used to handle the affairs of the Jewish settlement (DORSA) and took many of their land illegally when some of those settlers died. The city hall had some/lot of involvement as well.
 

Chris

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Lambada said:
BTW many of the Cabarete people had titles, paid taxes etc but that'll get jumped on here, so I'll PM you what I know.

Why would that get jumped on here? I don't understand?

For me and I know for others, we are all still looking for the real reason why this thing happened outside of Cabarete. I received some private info and I believe I know who the new owner is of the piece of beachfront outside of Cabarete, but I am unfortunately not at liberty to divulge this information. I did write to this person to ask whether he is aware of what has been done here? Still waiting for an answer - I might never get one. But, from my side, when I am free to talk about this info, I will certainly not be shy to inform the new owner that he could consider making restitution to those who lost their homes - financially, he is able to do this and morally, I believe he will consider it.

I have also heard that some people claim to have had title, but have no new information to decide between fact and rumor - and much rumour is flying around. Do you have legitimate sources of people that claim they did have title? I have not seen anything that I can accept as fact yet.
 

Jane J.

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Just because the bars etc pay money to the city hall does not make it legal.
I make no claims at their legality, am just saying that to call them "squatters'" gives the false illusion that these caseta-owners have gotten something for nothing or were defrauding the system, which they have not done.

Here's a question: I remember hearing about a law that protects "squatters" if they have occupied land or a building for X amount of time. This was being discussed when many Haitian families set up house in the white elephant of a mall that was being built near Club Res. Does anyone here know if such a law really exists?

(And before all of y'all start jumping down my throat to say that the law is a piece of paper with which asses are wiped, I know that already. Am just asking question.)
 

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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Should Robert start a list of the dr1ers who want to be notified in time so that they can lie in front of the bulldozers?