2005News

Flea markets in Santo Domingo

Every Sunday at the Kilometer 12 marker on the Sanchez Highway, the flea market transforms the area into a mixture of pedestrians, hawkers, buyers and tourists which make the area a dynamo of economic activity. Each week 7,000 customers go to the market, according to numbers generated by the National District Municipal Council ?ADN. The flea market that operates under the flyway of Luperon Avenue over the Sanchez Highway, has spaces for up to 600 vendors. The whole area is supervised by the municipality which charges RD$400 each month to the vendors, plus RD$20 each Sunday, all in accordance to the four-year contract currently in force. The data from the municipality shows that 70% of the vendors are not from Santo Domingo and that 45% are Haitian. And flea markets are proliferating. In Villa Consuelo, also in the National District, in Buenos Aires and Las Palmas in Herrera and in Los Alcarrizos, all in Santo Domingo West. In Santo Domingo East, there are markets in Villa Duarte and El Almirante. The ADN reports also show that approximately 5,500 people visit the Buenos Aires market and a similar number the markets at Villa Duarte, El Almirante and Villa Consuelo. The report further attributes the markets to the creation of 120,000 direct jobs.