Hundreds of people formed a human chain yesterday on the shoreline of the Escambrón public beach to demand that San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero abandon a plan to build a 950-car parking garage in Parque del Escambrón. The project would cede the land for 60 years to a private company in an area classified as an evacuation zone exposed to storm surge, tsunamis, and flooding.
Sonia Palacios, spokesperson for the group Escambrón Unido, said the municipality would grant the surface rights to the owners of the former American Parking System, now operating as Smart Parking System, whose history she said includes millions in tax evasion, an administrative bankruptcy, and corruption scandals involving former senator Jorge de Castro Font. Palacios accused Romero of favoring private donors to his political party.
The group warned the expanded, privatized lot would triple vehicle traffic in the area, raising local temperatures, increasing oil pollution reaching the sea, and raising the entrance fee, currently about $7 per car. Escambrón Unido criticized the government's development model, saying progress should not be measured by cement and car sales.