Some Old Videos of the DR

[NALs]

Santo Domingo (1940’s)
Much of modern GSD didn’t exist such as SDE or SDO, much of SDN and most of the National District. By the time you reached Máximo Gómez you began to enter the countryside. The Colonial Zone was the center of all things the Capital including businesses. The Capital with no traffic jams, highrises, tunnels, highrises, not even the Centro Olímpico or the big bridges. Clean streets, no power outsges, no water shortages, a lot safer… Imagine that! Btw, not even Hotel El Embajador existed yet.

Santo Domingo (1950’s)
Celebrating the victory of Tigres de Licey baseball team.

Boca Chica (1960’s)

Santo Domingo (1990’s)

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

Man. Image if these stuff still exist today, I promise you SDQ would be full of 20 million population because of that

 

[Pikobello]

Man how many memorys coming up when I see the 1990 video. How many times buying shoes at Los Muchachos at el conde and stuff in Sederias California and walking thr Av, Mella without fesr of being stolen...

 

[aarhus]

Man. Image if these stuff still exist today, I promise you SDQ would be full of 20 million population because of that

Just like many of todays videos these probably show the best parts of the DR.

 

[keepcoming]

Man. Image if these stuff still exist today, I promise you SDQ would be full of 20 million population because of that

Like what? People still celebrate Licey winning (other teams as well). The ZC is still there, minus many of the stores from the video. Santo Domingo has never been a huge tourist destination. People come on business and with tourism some stay a couple of days. Back in the late 80's when I first started coming to the DR it was nice, the Capital. But I would not say it would be the reason for continued visits (marrying/family was that reason). For me there was a lot more of the country other than Santo Domingo. But in that time the further away from the Capital you got the more "rural" it became. Forget phone service, many did not have phones in their homes. You went to Codetel if you wanted to make a call. A lot different back then.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

Like what? People still celebrate Licey winning (other teams as well). The ZC is still there, minus many of the stores from the video. Santo Domingo has never been a huge tourist destination. People come on business and with tourism some stay a couple of days. Back in the late 80's when I first started coming to the DR it was nice, the Capital. But I would not say it would be the reason for continued visits (marrying/family was that reason). For me there was a lot more of the country other than Santo Domingo. But in that time the further away from the Capital you got the more "rural" it became. Forget phone service, many did not have phones in their homes. You went to Codetel if you wanted to make a call. A lot different back then.

I was talking about power outage, pollution, traffic and all that. If that was still today, that what I mean

 

[keepcoming]

Less traffic, yes, but there were still power outages (from the time I first came until today).

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

Less traffic, yes, but there were still power outages (from the time I first came until today).

not in 1980s my wifes family told me when my wife doesnt exist, never had power outages.

 

[keepcoming]

not in 1980s my wifes family told me when my wife doesnt exist, never had power outages.

Not sure where your wife (family) lived but in the 80's there were power outages, I experienced them.

 

[AlterEgo]

Like what? People still celebrate Licey winning (other teams as well). The ZC is still there, minus many of the stores from the video. Santo Domingo has never been a huge tourist destination. People come on business and with tourism some stay a couple of days. Back in the late 80's when I first started coming to the DR it was nice, the Capital. But I would not say it would be the reason for continued visits (marrying/family was that reason). For me there was a lot more of the country other than Santo Domingo. But in that time the further away from the Capital you got the more "rural" it became. Forget phone service, many did not have phones in their homes. You went to Codetel if you wanted to make a call. A lot different back then.

You’re right, there was a waiting list to get a landline. My in-laws had one, always someone wanting to use it. Ditto their TV.

The early cellphone service was almost nonexistent away from Santo Domingo. I remember Mr AE’s brothers climbing onto our roof in the campo to try to make a call. In those days we were truly incommunicado out there. I remember the billboards that just had a huge orange square on them with “coming” or something like that. Then finally Orange cell (was it from France????) was available to compete.

 

[keepcoming]

My in-laws had a house phone, every neighbor used to come over and ask to use. My FIL said no more after they were constantly getting calls all day long for neighbors. I remember when cell service first came, it was constantly "out", the service was really bad. Miami Vice was one (there were very few) of the only American TV shows (in Spanish) I remember being on TV.

 

[keepcoming]

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

Not sure where your wife (family) lived but in the 80's there were power outages, I experienced them.

They lived in Santo Domingo just edge from the baseball stadium

 

[keepcoming]

They lived in Santo Domingo just edge from the baseball stadium

In Ensanche La Fe? Strange because there were definitely power outages in the 80's.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

In Esanche La Fe? Strange because there were definitely power outages in the 80's.

Not that, I asked my wife again and found they used live 2 blocks from SID factory.

 

[JD Jones]

In the 80s I worked for Timberland in Santiago and our generators ran more than they were off.

 

[NALs]

Like what? People still celebrate Licey winning (other teams as well). The ZC is still there, minus many of the stores from the video. Santo Domingo has never been a huge tourist destination. People come on business and with tourism some stay a couple of days. Back in the late 80's when I first started coming to the DR it was nice, the Capital. But I would not say it would be the reason for continued visits (marrying/family was that reason). For me there was a lot more of the country other than Santo Domingo. But in that time the further away from the Capital you got the more "rural" it became. Forget phone service, many did not have phones in their homes. You went to Codetel if you wanted to make a call. A lot different back then.

Some people don’t like to hear that. Been there, done that, seen the responses…

Even when SD was the main destination in the DR (1940’s all the way until Playa Dorada and the Puerto Plata Airport was created and then PP took SD’s spot), it simply was where most visitors stayed and had most of the best hotels (original Jaragua which was the best Dominican hotel until the 1950’s added El Embajador.) It wasn’t that the DR was a major vacation spot. Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and a few others were the major players in Caribbean tourism. The DR? Well, Hamaca was the first Dominican beach hotel (not all inclusive) and it wasn’t that big (I don’t think it amounted to 50 rooms) and it wasn’t very popular as far as tourism go except many Dominicans stayed there because it was the only beach hotel in the entire country. Argentina’s dictator Juan Perón and Cuba’s dictator Domingo Bautista lived there for a time when the suffered coup d’etat that ended their regimes in their respected countries, not because the hotel attracted them to the DR.

Most hotels in the DR were created and owned by the Dominican government unlike in Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc. The original Jaragua had a casino, a very small and unimpressive casino. Maybe it was the first casino in the DR? The government decided to create the casino inspired by the casinos in Puerto Rico, but not its size and its lavishness.

Tourism simply wasn’t the DR’s thing. Now is when there are tourists in the DR. Then? Not numerically and not compared to other major Caribbean destinations.

There is a reason even today hotel occupancy rates in the Capital are among the lowest in the country compared to places like Punta Cana or La Romana/Bayahibe.

They think you’re being “anti-Capitaleños” when you’re simply saying how things actually were.

 

[NALs]

Less traffic, yes, but there were still power outages (from the time I first came until today).

From the 1970’s… that’s when many things started to go downhill…

 

[keepcoming]

I have never thought of Santo Domingo as a tourist destination in all the years I have lived here. Mostly people are here on business, at a conference, etc. There are tourists but Santo Domingo is normally not their destination. Even way back, I remember for Dominicans coming to the Capital, it was to take care of business, doctor visits, maybe some shopping, that's about it. In the 80's (into the early 90's) our airline crew hotel was the Sheraton Hotel (it was named the Sheraton back then also). We used to go over to the Jaragua for drinks sometimes.

 

[NALs]

Many people refuse to accept that what attract tourists to every Caribbean island with plenty of resorts are the beaches. This is the case even in Puerto Rico where the San Juan area is the area with the most available hotel rooms. Even in the USA.

The main attraction to Miami? Beaches.

Orlando is much more designed to appease snd attract tourists than Santo Domingo (clean streets, sidewalks in perfect shape, professional landscaping left, right and center; overall a very beautiful setting in downtown and elsewhere. Yet, most tourists that “visit Orlando” never set foot in the city. It’s all about the mouse, “Free Willy,” and “The Hulk.” Really what attracts most tourists there and was the reason Orlando became a very successful tourists destination was Disney. This is with Orlando itself being better prepared than Santo Domingo to attract tourists in its own right.

Sure, NYC, Paris, Rome the city themselves attract the tourists, but those aren’t any cities. Most places with successful tourism the cities aren’t the main magnet, regardless how nice of a city it’s.

The DR in general and Santo Domingo in particular will not be reinventing the wheel, doesn’t matter how hard they try to do so.

I think many people let their desires blind them on the actual potential of a place. Santo Domingo needs a lot to look as nice as Orlando and yet, the situation with tourism in Orlando was already mentioned. If the city was the main attraction there, tourism would be considerably less than now and by considerably, this is a serious considerably less.