The front area of the Mercado Modelo on Mella Avenue has been cleaned up, but the back door area remains filthy, as evidenced by the front-page picture in El Caribe newspaper. For some reason, the area around Imbert Street is being used to deposit garbage picked up from around the Colonial Zone by military personnel and private collectors. One of the small storekeepers in the Mercado Modelo, who did not wish to be identified, told reporters ?It doesn?t matter if the garbage truck comes by here and cleans up ? the military just comes and dumps garbage all over again.? According to Luis Lopez, the administrator of the well-known tourist attraction in Santo Domingo, his efforts are hindered by the low rents paid by the 300 shop owners, as well as the fact that the 2002 budget had been spent by the time he took on the job in August of 2002. A proposed 100 percent increase in rents approved by the city government in 1999 was never effected.
