WILLEMSTAD - Downtown Punda is currently not going through its best times. The city center is deteriorating because the government does not carry out maintenance.
This is according to the Downtown Management Organization (DMO). The shopkeepers’ association wrote a letter to the government about this, but says that this is usually to no avail because the government does not respond structurally.
Until recently DMO did maintenance itself and paid the costs from the parking fees at Marichi. But that is closed now. The result: dirty streets, broken lampposts, and dead palm trees on the Wilhelminaplein.