Durathror said:
Unlike so many here, I have faith in the people who helped make Orient what it is today. The building they are in won't make much of a difference. The buildings will be cold and sterile for about a month and then the talents of the owners and operators will once again come to the fore and we will see their character expressed again.
Yes, it will be hard for the owners in the short term, yes, there will be some long term changes, but some of the responses here make it sound like the plan is to put in a strip mall with a CVS and a Burger King, then make the beach itself into the world's first open air Chuck E Cheese. It is just new buildings.
We respectfully disagree. It's not just 'new buildings'. It's government-sanctioned sterile cement box buildings that take away the whole 'beach-shack' ambiance. If we want that, we can go to Aruba (no disrespect to Aruba or the folks that love it; but let's face it, it's not SXM). And, if it pans out, there's a big difference between taxis and vans bringing cruise ship passengers and huge tourist buses trucking them in. With the additional expense being spent, you can bet rents will go up and they'll be heavily promoting Orient Beach to the passengers even more so than now. Something tells me they're not just doing this because of hurricanes. We'll see where it goes from here. I guess time will tell whether our ''strip mall' fears are founded or not.
