The proposal made by renowned Dominican architect Eugenio Pérez Montás to take 10 lineal meters from the Mirador del Sur Park to try and alleviate the heavy traffic on Anacona Avenue, has been backed by another architect, Culture Minister Eduardo Selman. While the extra space will make Anacona Avenue wider and help with traffic congestion at least for some time, it has met with much criticism. Many see the action as a big negative for the park.
City Mayor David Collado is also against taking space from the park to facilitate vehicular traffic. Collado says the priority of his administration is the protection, conditioning and maintenance of the park. “We are committed to continuing to develop policies and proposals that tend to increase the footprint of public space and to favor initiatives that favor pedestrians rather than private vehicles,” he said. He said the city government is following the Land Use Plan that was advised by the world-famous urban planner Jhan Gehl. The plan establishes the city needs to be more humane and adapted to pedestrians. “In short, a city for the people,” the Mayor said in a statement.
PRM candidate for senator for Santo Domingo, Faride Raful rejected the plan to cut around 60,000 meters of the green area from the city park. She said experiences from around the world have proven that avenue expansions stimulate rather than reduce traffic.
The Commission of Natural Sciences and Environment of the Academy of Sciences issued a statement on Tuesday, 5 November 2019, rejecting the proposal to widen the Av. Anacaona to make room for vehicular traffic. “We reject the proposal presented to expand Mirador Sur Avenue, under the assumption of decongesting traffic in the capital,” says the Academy of Sciences in the statement.
Architect Eugenio Pérez Montás now says his statements regarding the park were misinterpreted.
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Diario Libre
6 November 2019