Sosua Bars Must Close Fronts

[Ken]

From today's Sosua News:

By order of the tourist police and the mayor and aldermen of Sos?a, the bars, clubs and discos in the main street Pedro Clisante have to be closed again, so there is no view inside the establishment. From the street it should no longer be possible to see what goes on inside. This is an order of the government so families walking by will not be disturbed. The Pedro Clisante must not leave an inappropriate impression for strolling tourists with children in the evening.

 

[Eddy]

Might as well close them down. The charm of these bar was that you could sit down have a beer and look at the people going by.

 

[Seamonkey]

They made this announcement 2.5 years ago and it lasted about 3 days.

 

[windeguy]

The thing about history repeating itself is that people don't learn from past mistakes.

 

[Rattus_Rattus]

Why dont they send every "evil" buisness to Cheramico again. It is retarded to close anything, it will be as hot as a boiler inside these closed bars in no time.

 

[Castle]

All in all, I think it's a fair compromise. We all criticized that they planned to close them down, we knew it wasn't going to work. And we sympathized with those living in Sosua for having to cope with these businesses day in and day out. I think allowing them to remain open and at the same time making them less obvious could work for both sides. I understand it must be more attractive if you can sit and watch people (and girls) walk by, but you can't win them all.

 

[brlatm]

Guess I can't sit at Seamonkeys place anymore on a early Sunday morning eating breakfast and enjoying the quiet street. Now I will have to be locked away in a cage eating my eggs and and bacon like a good little patron.

 

[Tamborista]

Guess I can't sit at Seamonkeys place anymore on a early Sunday morning eating breakfast and enjoying the quiet street. Now I will have to be locked away in a cage eating my eggs and and bacon like a good little patron.

I am fairly sure restaurants are not affected by this new "no puta in view" ordinance.
It will certainly be interesting to see how this is handled @ Rumba, something tells me Bobby has a very good seamstress.

 

[Salsafan]

Well, one must see to positive aspects: maybe less opportunities for mosquitos to bite in the evening.

 

[tim c]

All in all, I think it's a fair compromise. We all criticized that they planned to close them down, we knew it wasn't going to work. And we sympathized with those living in Sosua for having to cope with these businesses day in and day out. I think allowing them to remain open and at the same time making them less obvious could work for both sides. I understand it must be more attractive if you can sit and watch people (and girls) walk by, but you can't win them all.

I disagree, this is one reason I live in Sosua. They raped Playa Granda. I use to go there about 5 times a year. Now I went there once and will never return. From what I heard the mayor is going to turn the beach into another Punta Cana. If I want Punta Cana that is where I would live. I like Sosua the way it is, there is no reason to change it. Closing in bars is not going to help with tourist. Bull dozing the beach will do nothing but make the people who live here leave. Tourist come here for a reason. Take that reason away they will go somewhere else. Sousa is different then any where else on this island. Turn it into everywhere else...Why come here?

 

[wrecksum]

I must be particularly dim-witted today but can someone explain how this ordinance benefits anyone in any way?

Are we becoming somehow a fundamentalist regime or something?
What's next, covering table legs or donning burkas?
I don't get it.

 

[westcan]

From today's Sosua News:

The Pedro Clisante must not leave an inappropriate impression for strolling tourists with children in the evening.

lol that's a good one!

 

[Robert]

Typical gut reaction to a problem. They ping pong all over the place as they have no long term plan and are reactionary as opposed to being proactive.

 

[Tor]

Go to the Carribean and have your beers indoors!!! Guess this will attract many more tourists to Sosua. As I understand also all the Beach bars will be moved innside some new shopping mall. This will guaranteed be a big success.

 

[Viajero]

Todo tiene su final. Nada dura para siempre.

 

[Maco]

I've been going to Sosua for over 7 years now and NEVER EVER have I seen families with children walking through at night. So lets throw out that argument...I was looking into investing in a small hotel in Sosua...Absolutley Not now...the politicians add new laws and taxes daily it seems. Stability is what you need when investing in an area. My buddy who owns a restaurant down there told me they just added a Music tax. If you have music playing in your establishment you have to pay. He said they got $5000 pesos a month from Rumba...they tried asking for 2 years retroactive!! He refused I'm told...The D.R. only has a few good things going for it from a business aspect...watch them ruin it...just watch!!

 

[curlando]

The Mayor wants to drive all the bars in Sosua out of business. If the bars go out of business the non family oriented tourist will not travel to Sosua. If non family oriented tourist stops coming to Sosua the girl will be less likely to ply their trade in Sosua.
The Mayor has her own money invested in Sosua and wants to setup her businesses.

 

[windeguy]

The Mayor wants to drive all the bars in Sosua out of business. If the bars go out of business the non family oriented tourist will not travel to Sosua. If non family oriented tourist stops coming to Sosua the girl will be less likely to ply their trade in Sosua.
The Mayor has her own money invested in Sosua and wants to setup her businesses.

I think someone understands what is going on, at least in part.. Plus understand this initiative has the backing of Santo Domingo and the main and local tourism ministers.

 

[Castle]

The Mayor wants to drive all the bars in Sosua out of business. If the bars go out of business the non family oriented tourist will not travel to Sosua. If non family oriented tourist stops coming to Sosua the girl will be less likely to ply their trade in Sosua.
The Mayor has her own money invested in Sosua and wants to setup her businesses.

I agree. Driving the bars out of business would kill Sosua. That's why I opposed (from DR1 ) all those measures that would drive away the usual sex tourists. But I don't think this is a bad measure, because it's not directed at closing the bars, but instead at giving other kind of businesses (restaurants, regular bars, etc) a fair chance to get some customers, too. I think sex-oriented bars' rightful right to co-exist must be respected, just like they must respect the rights of others.
We have to agree that tourism based exclusively on sex brings more problems than it solves if left uncontrolled (drugs, exploitation, crime, corruption, etc).
I'm not saying this is a perfect solution, but it's a start. And I hope all parties involved focus more on how they can benefit from it.

 

[Viajero]

My buddy who owns a restaurant down there told me they just added a Music tax. If you have music playing in your establishment you have to pay.

I think some people wouldn't mind if the open bars didn't play unnecessarily loud music at times. It almost seems like the bars are trying to drown out another bars loud music by playing its music even louder.

If they are bringing back the bar enclosures, I wonder if they will also bring back the rules against women hanging out in the street at night because you will still have the streets littered with working girls outside the bars despite the enclosures, if they are trying to get that out of sight.