A business without a sign

First things first: Congratulations to Divi Resorts, 50 years in business. Man on the Moon coincided with the opening of the first ocean-front casitas at Divi, on Wednesday, July 16th, 1969.

Then here’s my column for today

A business without a sign is a sign of shady business

When will the business community, and developers understand the value of signage?

When the Cinemas announced the construction of a new complex on Sasaki, their first move was to stack two containers and erect a mega sign, letting the public know what was going on.

I congratulate them on that.

Even before ground-breaking, we already knew what was coming,

That is an act of transparency. The developer announced his intentions and by means of a sign explained to the public the inconvenience of empty cement bags flying in the wind and lunch boxes rolling in the dust.   

For months we wondered what the winged monstrosity next to Superfood will bring, now we know, as soon as the developer needed tenants, he put up a sign. Not a minute before that. But we are grateful for the aesthetic look of the building. It is not an instantly shabby strip mall, like the ones popping up like mushrooms after the rain, along the highway.

Someone is building some other monstrosity across RBC bank, without the courtesy of letting us know.

Another is building in town across the cruise ship terminal, some uninspiring row of archy stores, without the courtesy of letting us know.

They cleared the terrain across the street from the bowling alley, some monstrosity is coming there. Guess what, without the courtesy of letting us know.

The list is long.

Since the MinInfra announced that assigned terrain would revert to the domain if untouched, would-be developers have been working their bulldozers overtime.

DIP was finally moved to lame protest reminding them, they have to solicit permits, if they unleash bulldozers into anything over 750m2.

The aanlegvergunning. You must apply for one, beforehand.

Like serving poop on toast. What does it matter? It’s poop. All that terrain was assigned, razed, and no one knows what’s coming, and if finances are in place to finish the projects.  

Bottomline: Developers avoid putting signs up on construction sites, to avoid scrutiny, and accountability. There should be a law for that.

If your development is legit, and your financing in place, and you spent money on architecture and design, logic says you should be proud to put a ring on it, as a sign of commitment. Let us know what you are doing, via a large billboard.

This secretive, crooked, opaque way of doing things got to stop.   

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July 16, 2019
Rona Coster