Sounds like the status quo of corruption. Then the convenience of using the recent protests as an excuse is just more smoke and mirrors.

Between the violent protesting, 3-4 timeshare messes on the Dutch side and this along with what else is going on in various parts of the French side, it is not doing the island, the people or the economy any good and will possibly have very negative long term effects.

Wow, the recent protests are a week excuse and their complaints have a lot of merit. They had all the underground utilities buried in April when we were there.

Not at all saying the complaints do not have merit but burning cars and destroying property and other violence is not a good solution.

No i didn't think that's what you were saying. The excuse of the utilities work not progressing because of the few days of protests is BS. The complaints of favoritism towards the big beach bar owners and being jerked around during the permit process has merit. That whole mess that happened during the protests is unnerving and definitely not condoned. It is already having an effect on tourism as i hear of many cancelling their trips.

I knew, when that press release came out, that the infrastructure was complete, that it was BS. They had to know at the time that it was absolutely a lie. There is absolutely NO excuse for what the Collectivite has done, or should I say NOT done, in this circumstance. And the owner of Pirate is correct, there is one rule for the restaurants owned by Luftman and another rule for anyone else. This whole thing is just BS. These people have been screwed every which way by the Collectivite.

It sure appears that way. And that is just what I was told was going on.

SXMbeacher...Gotcha.

These problems are symptomatic of every socialist/bureaucratic economic system--and France's mix of socialist/bureaucracy and highly regulated free enterprise is no exception. It's the U.S. Postal Service, Veterans Administration hospitals, Bureau of Indian Affairs Health Service, et. al. inefficiency and incompetence all rolled into one. It's France's so-called "dark state" civil servants proving how much smarter they are than their employers, showing how much more expert they are. It's called arrogance. And they answer to no one. These are the same fools who created the nightmare, insolvent pension system that the French common folk are burning their country down to preserve. And why not? Doesn't everybody work hard (at least once in a while) for a lifetime of free lunch? The solution for the problems on the French side of Saint-Martin is to transfer the other side, Sint Maarten, to Germany, which has been propping up the French mainland for decades in the hope the Germans will extend the largesse to the French side of SXM.

There is so much anger on the French side and with Club Orient still in limbo it doesn't make me wanting to visit anytime soon.

I have no problem going and staying on the Dutch side and have a March trip planned but the French side is s totally different situation.

cacapasa--say what??? This is why we don't allow political posts..

What a weird reply. Aren't the French sides "issues" political in nature?

Yes but there is not to be US political discussion here.

Been over two years and the French government has done basically nothing except stop anyone from rebuilding repairing or investing in infrastructure . It looks like they want to almost forget about there people who else would do what little they have done to bring there 1/2 back , they impose restrictions on there citizens who have lived on the island all there life’s and endured much heart ache do to storms and always came back stronger now the most powerful storm to hit SXM has past , but now they can’t get back because of the FRENCH GOVERNMENT knows better from thousands of mile away they are making decisions that will change the life’s and shape of the country force residents out of there homes and land .
The Bitch Irma was the most powerful storm until the French Government step in . They should be giving advise on better ways of building . But please ideas better than what they did with the with the buildings that they built on Orient Beach which shows they have no idea about what they are doing .

Help Your People not hinder them get your head out of your FRENCH [censored]

Thats what I hear and read, the French government has done nothing since the storm to fix a roof and has done everything to prevent any individual from fixing a roof themselves.

They should get out of the business of long distance local island management.

All this discussion makes me appreciate what Cedrick has done at Club O beach that much more.

After the storm, he went about the task of cleaning up Club O beach, pulling chairs out of the salt pond, and setting up shop starting with nothing but a cooler and a generator, and started slowly rebuilding a business that now employs a significant number of people. No whining, no complaining, and no waiting/pleading for the French government to help. In the last two years, he has rebuilt and relocated Perch Lite, added a kitchen and porta-potties, added more seating, rebuilt the swim platform and even added signage. The beach experience on that end of Orient is now very similar to how it was pre-Irma, as long as you don't look back over your shoulder at the crumbling ruins of Club O ...

While he did have some help from Club O owners to purchase new chairs, as far as I know all of this was done on his initiative. Meanwhile the carbet tenants are finding out just how much a promise from a French government official is worth.