The “Duarte con Paris” intersection should be renamed “Pandemonium con Bedlam” given this intersection’s infamous reputation for disorder. Historically, city governments have failed to effectively deal with the hordes of street vendors hawking their wares along the street. Over the years, the intersection traffic off the Av. 27 de Febrero overpass run into when driving to the Juan Pablo Duarte Bridge has seemingly been taken over by more and more informal vendors that have sprawled into the street causing already congested traffic to move even slower.
Now, the National District government under Mayor David Collado says they are looking at the example of how city leaders in Guayaquil, Ecuador have successfully addressed the street vendor problem in that city. Collado said the 10 vendor leaders will be taken to Guayaquil to see for themselves how the solution has worked in their favor. He said the private sector would then move in to rescue the area.
The city mayor says an agreement has already been reached with the informal vendors in the main campus of the state university UASD that has resulted in the freeing of 40% of the public spaces these had taken over.
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Diario Libre
23 May 2018
