Can one live in the DR

damyb

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Jul 6, 2006
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Hello everyone,

My husband and I are looking into moving to Sto Dgo.
We bought a house in Los Jardines de Sur. (Nu?ez de caceres and Independencia) in the capital.

Since we share our plans with some Dominican friends.
they are treating us like if Iwe have gone crazy.

they say that it will be a mistake to try to raise my 3 years old daughter in the country.
and that it is impossible to live in peace in the DR.

They said, that the crime rate is unbearable.

Please, I would highly appreciate to read your opinion on this matter.

I am planning to go and stay for 2 months to see what the deal is.
But, still do not know if that would be sufficient to experience the life in the DR.


Thank you in advance for your opinion.

Have a bless day!!
 

DominicanScotty

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Going away

damyb said:
Hello everyone,

My husband and I are looking into moving to Sto Dgo.
We bought a house in Los Jardines de Sur. (Nuñez de caceres and Independencia) in the capital.

Since we share our plans with some Dominican friends.
they are treating us like if Iwe have gone crazy.

they say that it will be a mistake to try to raise my 3 years old daughter in the country.
and that it is impossible to live in peace in the DR.

They said, that the crime rate is unbearable.

Please, I would highly appreciate to read your opinion on this matter.

I am planning to go and stay for 2 months to see what the deal is.
But, still do not know if that would be sufficient to experience the life in the DR.


Thank you in advance for your opinion.

Have a bless day!!


At least 2 months to see if you do like it here to live, however I would recommend more time there. Nay sayers? Whether Dominicans or foreigners, you just got to love negative people always controlling other people's lives. Crime is no more then anywhere else and certain precautions have to be taken especially in the cities just as you would if you moved anywhere else in the world. However, you do need to come down here and really see what is going on. These things you must surely know BEFORE you make that life changing move to the DR. There are many members that live in Santo Domingo and the surrounding areas. They will be posting with some good advice for you.
 

Criss Colon

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You Do No one A Favor By Saying That Crime Is Not a Factor In The DR!!!

Those of us that have lived here for more that five years(Lived here 100% of our time!) have seen a many fold increase in crime! I have been visiting here for more that 20 years.I have lived and worked,and am raising a family here for the last 10 years!! So please don't tell me that crime is not a growing problem.Ask the Dominicans if crime is not their # 1 problem now!! If you can read and speak Spanish,you can see that crime is "Page One" in all the newspapers,and on all the TV news/commentary programs!!
The reason is clear,"DRUGS"! Drugs are now wide spread in all the "Barrios" of the DR !
Drug Dealers,and other "Garbage" are being deported from the US back to the DR. They are now hardened criminals,"USA" style.That means that they kill you after they have your cell phone and you wallet!
Can you be a "Foreigner" and live in the DR? Sure you can! But don't think you are in Burmuda,cause you ain't!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 

DominicanScotty

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You are referring to?

Crime is evident anywhere you go and as Mr. CCCCCCCCCCCC has mentioned crime cannot be ignored! Depending on where you move to in Sto Dom. Again, you must come down here for an extended period of time and assimilate yourself into the area you wish to live.

I work in a prison and have first hand knowledge of Dominican criminals that are facing deportation. I am not going to ignore the fact that these jackos are going to keep doing what they do when they get their feet back on the ground in the DR.

However, it isn't a reason to give someone to NOT move to the DR. That would be wrong.
 
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Celt202

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May 22, 2004
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I would give greater weight to the opinion of someone who lives in the DR.

The DR is not a good place to educate children. In even the best private schools there is a culture of laziness, cheating and general disinterest in learning. You need a strong family to counteract that.

There are several drug ridden barrios within 3/4 of a mile of Los Jardines del Sur. There was a daylight murder during a mugging of the prominient head of a medical clinic last year on the north side of Los Jardines.

My 2 cents. I have lived in Santo Domingo for four years.
 

damyb

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Celt202

Thank you for your 2 cents. :)

Which part of Sto Dgo do you live??

Could you please provide me with the names of the barrios that you mentioned??
 

DominicanScotty

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Large cities= crime

Please take note that this is indeed a city of several million people. Take a city this size anywhere in the world, anywhere at all and you will gather up stories of kidnappings, drugs and murders.

I have written this and will write it again. Here in New York I own apartment houses. I made sure I bought them away from the crime ridden areas inside this town.Yes, a half mile down the street is a crime ridden neighborhood I won't get caught driving through at night and I carry a gun and a badge. This town is only 18,000 people. Yes sireeeee, murders, drugs, crime and a kidnapping once in a while here too. Should we go on about crime?

Come on now, we are talking about Santo Domingo and not Luperon.
 

Adam Spenser

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Can One Live in the DR

My favorite topic crime in the DR is again a thread. What else is new? I expected the gold carders to be out in force saying "what crime". Thanks Chris for your note. Maybe Dominican Scotty will get his head out of the sand one day. Does he read Listin Diario or Hoy or even the headlines in DR-1. Crime is rampant in the DR no matter what you say. The scarry part is that people are being killed after they are robbed.
To answer the lady's question most of the people I know would say do not come here with your 3 year old. Your friends gave you good advice.
Adam Spenser Spelled with an "s" not a "c"
 

johne

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A couple of for instances

Two weeks ago I said to a man that I was treating to dinner (in Santo Do. ) I'll meet you at the restaurant (Porterhouse). Said to me you are crazy. Your're not going anywhere, even in a cab without me. I said I've been doing it for eight years. He says--times have changed! Not like that anymore.
Meets me at the Intercontinental. We go down to his car. Removes his suit jacket and a gun the size of a shoebox. Says--you can't go anyplace anymore without it. I don't leave home without it.
Time to go home. His house near restaurant. Me 15-20 minutes away. Same routine all over again at midnight.

Question to store employee . "where are all the good phones, these are the cheepies" "Mi casa--can't keep them here--bring the model in when I sell it. Times are different -the other day someone walked away with one of the phones used for International calls." Has a line attached to it in a cubicle--man using a small plastic bag disconnets the clip-puts phone in bag and leaves before its noticed.

Question to friend--where are your glasses?--mugged and stolen with my cellular. Did you look for your glasses--perhaps they were on the ground?--You kidding the glasses are VERY valuble here--of course they took my glasses! Says to me--you just don't know what s going on here lately.

JOHN
And as Dom. Scotty I too live in NYC and I am apt. owner. Own a couple of buildings in an area (Bushwick) that has the distintion of having the highest crime rate in NYC--so yes there is crime everywhere--but from what I see, feel, hear its on the increase in SD.
 
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mountainfrog

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Where Do YOU live?

DominicanScotty said:
Crime is no more then anywhere else and certain precautions have to be taken especially in the cities just as you would if you moved anywhere else in the world.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

And why do Dominicans live in houses looking like cages?

m'frog
 

Celt202

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damyb said:
Which part of Sto Dgo do you live??

Could you please provide me with the names of the barrios that you mentioned??

I live a few blocks back from Independencia near M?ximo Tap?n (whose official name is M?ximo G?mez).

Those barrios are known by the locals as la ocho and la ocho y media. They are on the north side of Independencia at kilometers 8 and 8 1/2.
 

PlantaFULL

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Dominicans, just like many other latins tend to paint a very negative and often exagerated picture of their own countries. For most medium-class Dominicans I know in Santo Domingo it is impossible to comprehend any reason why someone would want to move here by free will. As far as raising children, if you have the money for a good private school, it is not all bad. Medium/upper class kids and teenegars I have contact with are very well educated in term of manners/respect for their parents and others; and I doubt that the exposure to drugs, violence, etc in decent schools here is anything like the average US school.

Still the best is to "try before you buy".
 

DominicanScotty

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Hmmmmm

mountainfrog said:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

And why do Dominicans live in houses looking like cages?

m'frog


Are you attempting to be sarcastic or simply vicious? I thought it would be fun to respond to your rhetoric. Do you sleep with your doors wide open? Poverty and desperation is why Dominicans live in houses wrapped like cages. People in the Dominican Republic are in a totally different ball park then people in North America and Europe. A Dominican prizes their television or stereo and will protect it with their life while someone like yourself or I would just go out and get another one or call our insurance company. Most people will steal in the DR out of desperation when most people will steal in North America or Europe out of greed.

Where do I live? Peekskill, NY and Jamao al Norte or La Union, Dominican Republic.
 

NALs

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PlantaFULL said:
Dominicans, just like many other latins tend to paint a very negative and often exagerated picture of their own countries. For most medium-class Dominicans I know in Santo Domingo it is impossible to comprehend any reason why someone would want to move here by free will. As far as raising children, if you have the money for a good private school, it is not all bad. Medium/upper class kids and teenegars I have contact with are very well educated in term of manners/respect for their parents and others; and I doubt that the exposure to drugs, violence, etc in decent schools here is anything like the average US school.

Still the best is to "try before you buy".
Thank God!!!!!

Someone who truly understands the Latin American mindset!!!

Latin American peoples are fatalistic about their countries when things are good, imagine what happens the moment they hear something negative....

I once saw a video which was sent to my email by a friend. It was a video on some website (I'll see if I can find the link) about some guy who was in Santo Domingo video taping.

What was he video taping? Apparently there was some old guy throwing water over his head while he was on the sidewalk. The Dominican guy video tapes the guy taking the shower and he says this word for word "eso es este pais".

You want to know what's the irony in all of this? Well, as he was taking a video shot of the man taking a shower, a brand new Mercedes Benz moved in and blocked his view for a few seconds!

Not to mention that the likelyhood that Dominican lives in NYC is great and if he does, he probably has seen the homeless guys who beg for money, like the one on THE MEDIAN ON I-95 on the stretch in NYC right after crossing the GW Bridge!

Yes, they are there, I had a good look at them about a week ago when I was coming back from visiting some friends in NJ and I was stuck in traffic right next to the guys begging for money in what is suppose to be a FIRST WORLD country.

However, you will never see a Dominican video tape such person in the US and then say "eso es este pais", I mean it's not as if such thing exist in first world countries!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Always look before you buy. If you like what you see buy, if you don't then don't buy!

It's quite simple, really.

-NALs

Here is the link to the video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5sBBVYmEQGg&search=Santo Domingo
 
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mountainfrog

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Desperate Criminals

DominicanScotty said:
.... Most people will steal in the DR out of desperation....

May very well be the case ever so often.
Desperate for the next dose...

BTW, the very poor cannot afford the burglar proofing.
And:
They also get victimized by the (less) desperate.
(Cases on request)

m'frog
 

DominicanScotty

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Agreed

mountainfrog said:
May very well be the case ever so often.
Desperate for the next dose...

BTW, the very poor cannot afford the burglar proofing.
And:
They also get victimized by the (less) desperate.
(Cases on request)

m'frog


Some of the poorer people in the barrios and campo only have a stupid lock on a flimsy wooden door to protect their meager belongings. People with more valuables and more to lose will fortify their homes with those iron gates. My furniture store in Sosua Abajo looks like a fortress guarded by an F.A.D. paratrooper.
 

frndms

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Wow, you must take care. Sounds like one of those scenes shown on "Miami Vice" TV program show. Better make sure that the wife and child properly escorted here and there, otherwise the family may suffer from some stress, if the bad hats are getting more daring and the local police can't do much. Surely, you can find a better part of town to live in, say may be near the police station or something. Good luck.
 

audboogie

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[and I doubt that the exposure to drugs, violence, etc in decent schools here is anything like the average US school.

just curious, are you saying its worse in US or DR?
 

PlantaFULL

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audboogie said:
[and I doubt that the exposure to drugs, violence, etc in decent schools here is anything like the average US school.

just curious, are you saying its worse in US or DR?

Less exposure here then in the US I meant. In the end it really depends on where you are coming from and what your current enviroment is like. For someone with a suburban "oasis" lifestyle in mind, where the schoolbus picks up the kids, the streets are quite and doors are unlocked, Santo Domingo would probably feel like moving into the Bronx. Which is not to be misunderstood as Santo Domingo = Bronx.

Since you mentioned that you already purchased the house and your daughter is only 3, you should simply do a "test move in".

A "1st class" education in any latin country will cost $ and require more time and effort from parents but can also be of imense value for the kids later on. Not just for the language but general education, values, world-views, and so on.

I grew up as a nomad myself, childhood in Africa, school in Brazil, University in Europe and now ended up here in the DR somehow. According to my Psychotherapist I turned out alright :)
 
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