What an ordeal for my friends who live near the Jordan Gate. They were very surprised to be offered room and board at the Crowne Plaza after the shock of returning from Aqaba to discover their neighborhood a parking lot for fallen crane debris. They very much enjoyed the five-star setting and scrumptious meals, to the point they altered their work schedules to coincide with meal time!
But, even delicious food gets old, washing clothes by hand in the sink was gets older, and their harris would give them a hard time about returning to pick up things. Finally after a couple days, a Crown Plaza employee gave them ten minutes to pack and leave or they would be charged for the night. They supposed that the developer got tired of paying the bill for them and the dozens of others whose homes are endangered by the threat of that crane coming down.
All parties found the end of Jordanian hospitality. So, they are back home, wondering what will happen Wednesday when the dismantling begins. We may have a few SAGAs hanging out. Can’t believe the developer is only offering them 500JD a month to re-locate. He should be paying them that for life for the hassle of living next-door to that mess, crane or not.
Here is the latest from the Jordan Times.
By Thameen Kheetan
AMMAN - Residents of 10 buildings near the Jordan Gate project in the capital on Monday rejected an offer of JD500 monthly per family from the contractor to rent apartments until a broken crane is removed from the site.
About 40 families, who were accommodated at the Crowne Plaza and Landmark hotels at the contractor’s expense when part of a 220-metre crane positioned above the 44th floor collapsed on May 16, were asked to leave after three days, according to residents who live near the under-construction twin towers.
Citing “mistreatment” by the Sharjah-based contractor, one of the residents, Faris Nabulsi, said: “The Crowne Plaza administration asked us to leave the hotel because Al Hamad Company is not willing to pay for our stay any more.”
The residents are now staying in their homes, with restricted movement, especially for children, Nabulsi told The Jordan Times yesterday.
Passers-by are denied access to the street, and only residents can enter, according to Nabulsi.
“We are not beggars, we don’t want money, we need to guarantee our security instead,” his neighbour Alaa Horani said, explaining that it would be more difficult to move the families’ belongings to other apartments.
One bright spot for my friends: they were thankful NOT to be put up at the San Rock Hotel, which seems to have a proliferation of foreign females coming and going at all hours of the night. Running the gauntlet of leering construction workers at the Gate was bad enough without being mistaken for a prostitute.
May 26, 2009 at 11:34 am |
The cost to the government for stopping this catastrophic project despite the initial greenlight would’ve been less and more dignified than the price so many pay for this ongoing nightmare, something that is sure to continue escalating in horrifying evolution for basically the life of this neighborhood for generations to come.
The cost of not taking a stand!
May 26, 2009 at 12:02 pm |
did you say San Rock hotel?
May 26, 2009 at 12:55 pm |
Nadine, I am SO with you. Had I known that this project was in the works before they tore down the skating rink, I would have protested more loudly. That ‘park’ was one of the few places left to bagazder, swing, sit and talk in the shade. I think some of the problems are karma-related (except that I don’t believe in karma
) as many kids are still sad that they can’t roller skate and have birthday parties there.
Ma3boos, I did, ooops, what am I missing??
May 26, 2009 at 2:00 pm |
Kinzi, Awful ordeal. And, Nadine, you are SO right on the money. If they had simply stopped this monstrosity at the first collapse, we would have avoided a decade long construction eye sore, groupings of unpleasant leering construction workers, etc. And Mab3oos, shame on you. This was not a “where to find” post… Naughty, naughty.
May 26, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
mmm, yes, even life in a posh hotel gets old very quickly.
May 26, 2009 at 4:38 pm |
nothing, just evil thoughts.
RE: Jordan Gates, it pays to know who actually owns the project. GAM put up a nasty fight against a dignified Jordanian company (Abu Ghazaleh) for the idiotic reasons and for having big signs of his company on his own buildings (the real reason was the developer wanted the land the buildings occupied).