The IDB, which finances the revitalization program, aims to increase employment as one of its main indicators of success, but the data shows that this growth does not necessarily benefit the residents of the Colonial City
SANTO DOMINGO. – One of the objectives of the revitalization of the Colonial City goes beyond restoring streets, squares and monuments: the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) itself establishes that one of the four pillars of the Comprehensive Tourism and Urban Development Program is the “development of local economies”, along with the recovery of heritage, the improvement of living conditions and the strengthening of the management of the historic center.
However, the latest business census of the Colonial City reveals the paradox that while micro-enterprises mainly employ residents of the historic center, medium and large companies increasingly depend on workers who live outside the area.
To measure whether this objective is met, the IDB chose a specific indicator: increasing the number of existing jobs in the Colonial City, as stated in the Project Monitoring Report DR-L1084 First period Jan-Jun 2025, which sets as a baseline the 8,859 jobs registered by the Census of Commercial Establishments of the Colonial City, prepared by Gallup Dominican Republic for the Ministry of Tourism, and establishes as a goal to reach 9,401 jobs in 2026.
On the other hand, the same census that serves as a starting point for measuring the success of the program raises a different question: Who actually occupies those jobs?
Jobs don't always stay in the Colonial City
For the first time, the census asked where the workers of commercial establishments resided, and the answer changes according to the size of the company.
- In micro-enterprises, 57% of employees live in the Colonial City itself.
- In small businesses that proportion drops to 23%.
- In the medians it drops to 7%.
- And in the large ones it reaches 27%.
The pattern is clear: the smaller the company, the greater the likelihood that those who work there also live in the historic center, and as the size of the business increases, the opposite occurs.
Businesses are increasingly resorting to workers who commute daily from other parts of Greater Santo Domingo, while family businesses remain the main employers for local residents.
The finding coincides with the business structure described by the census: micro-enterprises represent 73% of the commercial fabric of the Colonial City and continue to be, by far, the predominant type of business.
They are also the ones that show the strongest link with the resident population and in many cases they are family businesses, small shops, cafes, workshops or establishments where owners and employees are part of the community that lives in the historic center.
Larger companies have a different logic, probably because their operation demands more complex administrative structures, specialized personnel and workforces that often come from outside the Colonial City.
More jobs don't mean they'll be for residents
The IDB's goal is not simply to increase the number of jobs. Its program seeks to boost local economies, an objective explicitly defined within the project's results matrix.
However, the census leaves open a question: if a large part of the new jobs generated by medium and large companies are filled by workers who do not reside in the Colonial City, to what extent does economic growth directly benefit those who live there?
Official documents offer no answer, but neither do they confirm the existence of a labor displacement process. What they do show is a very marked difference between the behavior of micro-enterprises and that of larger businesses.
Another way to understand gentrification
The debate about the Colonial City usually focuses on housing prices, the arrival of new investments, or the changing urban landscape, but census data reveals another phenomenon, and it is not necessarily about who can continue living in the area.
It also matters who gets the jobs that economic revitalization produces, and in that sense, the census documents a kind of functional segregation of the labor market.
Residents maintain a dominant presence in small businesses, while jobs linked to medium and large companies are mostly filled by people who live outside the historic center.
It is not a conclusion about the causes of the phenomenon, but an overview of the labor market captured by the latest available survey.
Train to participate
The IDB seems to recognize this challenge, because within the component dedicated to the development of local economies, the program plans to train 800 people in technical trades, through programs developed at the Community Center, the San Valero Foundation and the Claustro de las Mercedes.
The report itself specifies that the indicator will track residents of the Colonial City who receive this training, and thus, training appears as one of the mechanisms planned to expand the participation of residents in the economic activity generated by the revitalization.
The monitoring report does not yet report how many people have been trained or what the effect of these programs has been on employment, but that evaluation will be done at the project's closing.
It is clear that the official IDB indicator continues to be increasing total employment, but the census raises a question: it is not enough to know how many jobs exist, it is also important to know who has access to them.
For now, the latest available snapshot shows that the economic growth of the Colonial City coexists with a reality that is rarely seen: smaller businesses continue to primarily employ their neighbors, while larger companies depend, to a large extent, on workers who arrive every morning from other parts of the city.
If the revitalization succeeds in increasing employment, as the IDB hopes, the next challenge will be to determine whether that growth also strengthens job opportunities for those who still live within the historic center.
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