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A lot of businesses closed in Sosua
The problem with the police presence is that to a common tourist not used to Sosua or RD it looks like a country in state of war. Increased police presence is good, looking like a war might break out is not. I admit that as a regular Sosua visitor I too got used to this and viewed it as part of the local charm, but the regular tourist family will not.
Even that I do not see. I think I can consider myself one of those 'couples with money', but for now this has been the first year in 15 years that I/we have not visited where we used to go 2 x one month a year.
We have no plans to return since I do not need to have to go to bed at 12 am with the added risk of my wife getting arrested and molested by police when she walks back the 100 meters from the salon to the bar where I am having a beer waiting on her.
It is somehow not my idea of a couples vacation. So we will curtail our RD vacations to just visiting the family in Santo Domingo (I hate Santo Domingo) and real vacations to the many other tropical
places in the world.
I respectfully disagree. There is the same kind of police presence in Rome, NYC, Bruxelles, Paris, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Athens, Hong Kong, Macau, etc. The difference is that the Sosua police are "guarding?" a much smaller area. I don't mind seeing an increased police presence. I hope they are being well paid; I hope they have had some extra training; I hope with all my heart that some day, being in the police will elicit the same respect, honor, and high pay --- which police deserve every minute of every day they are on duty --- that these essential civil servants have in the First World.
If this country trained and paid police to the level that they deserve, the total gestalt of this country would change in a generation. Which is why they don't do it. When a bi-lingual police person makes RD$5000 a month, and a hooker makes --- more? Ya think? --- you have a problem
This is the third world. Sadly police are paid peanuts and not a living wage. That is why many always have their hands out. It is a nice thought to pay them what they may be worth however comparing their wage to a one of prostitution is fine but not really valid. Many of the police are probably getting protection money from these women. That's the world in the DR.
You need to branch out and go someplace else in the DR. The Samana Peninsula, Bahyibe, or one of many other beautiful places in the DR.
Oh, we will.
We will just do them based out of Santo Domingo and not out of Sosua anymore.
An interesting turn of events down the road, would be to see Sosua after "most" of the putas have moved on to greener pastures, most of the discos are closed down, and there are only a few restaurants on Pedro.
Whereby with the aftermath, when there are only a handful of gringos and tumbleweeds around, yet cops all over the place, how long is it going to take before someone realizes that, that many cops aren't needed for a ghost town?
Lay-offs/firings may ensue, so then they become the drug dealers and motoconcho thieves, because there are no jobs left in Sosua other than a few waitress, salon worker, and Playero jobs, then recreating the "underbelly" that they tried to get rid of.
Whereby with the aftermath, when there are only a handful of gringos and tumbleweeds around, yet cops all over the place, how long is it going to take before someone realizes that, that many cops aren't needed for a ghost town?
Lay-offs/firings may ensue, so then they become the drug dealers and motoconcho thieves, because there are no jobs left in Sosua other than a few waitress, salon worker, and Playero jobs, then recreating the "underbelly" that they tried to get rid of.
.....and a whole gaggle of new rich gringos slithering around the town looking for something to do.
Kind of my point, it will be a ghost town, because really, other than the beach, there are some restaurants. Not to say that some people don't mind doing sweet F all, but I am thinking the rest would actually want "things" in a town they are going to stay in for any duration.
Where would the 80,000 or so Dominicans go that live in Sosua go to make it a ghost town?
Instead of your doom and gloom scenario, a far more likely scenario is that Sosua would be just another Dominican town.
Its not Doom and Gloom, Economics are a reality.
How many beach vendors/stores, and/or vendors that sell "whatever" on the streets are going to stick around, why would they when there would be nobody to sell to? When alot of the other places close up throwing Salon, waitress, store, and various other service jobs out that Dominicans hold, you think they will stay?? I happen to believe many would move on, Cabarete and Puerto Plata are not that far away.
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Some vendors would move on. Others will still be there because whore mongers only make up a small percentage of the people that are actually in Sosua on a couple of streets at any point in time.
Guillermo
do you really think 'zero' is a number?
Zero might be a bit of an overstatement........regarding tourists/visitors.
Change - perhaps
Less visitors - perhaps
Total closure - not really a possibility.
As an example -
there was a time when NYC was facing bankruptcy.... the world shivered in fear
But really, what were the possibilities?
Somebody pulls out the map of the world and an eraser?
Rubs NYC off the map ? No, don't think so.
Reinvention is the key
do you really think 'zero' is a number?
Zero might be a bit of an overstatement........regarding tourists/visitors.
Change - perhaps
Less visitors - perhaps
Total closure - not really a possibility.
As an example -
there was a time when NYC was facing bankruptcy.... the world shivered in fear
But really, what were the possibilities?
Somebody pulls out the map of the world and an eraser?
Rubs NYC off the map ? No, don't think so.
Reinvention is the key
just the mental picture you paint....
ghost town, out of work population
it all conjures up a desperate image....which might be overstated....IMO
Then please don't lie and state things that I did not as per your post...