The city government barred vehicular traffic from the Malecon on Sunday, from M?ximo Gomez to Calle Louis Pasteur, and thousands of Dominicans took advantage of the day. It was a time to play basketball, ride bicycles, skateboard, skate and fly kites along the strip. In the evening, Kinito Mendez, Los Toros Band, and Pavel Nu?ez and Guarionex Aquino entertained those who flocked to the seafronting boulevard.
The city government announced that this stretch of the Malecon will be closed off from 10am to midnight every Sunday for a test period. The Jaragua and Melia hotels have access entrances from Independencia Avenue. The city made an exception for the front of the V Centenario Intercontinental because that hotel does not have a back entrance and those needing to access the hotel would do so using the nearby Pasteur Street.
In the 70s and early 80s, the Malecon had been the leading promenade of the city. Traffic and the development of other city areas, however, resulted in people of greater purchasing power abandoning the movie houses and many restaurants along the strip, with those who stayed concentrating in the area around the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Park. Now the city government, under Mayor Roberto Salcedo, wants to rescue the Malecon and restore it to its glory days.