If you have errands for Thursday, like pick up medicine in the public hospitals - get a phone line - take the kids to a public scholol - or pay electric bills, then you’d better just go to the beach and plan on doing it Monday.  The unions of ICE, APSE, UNDECA, FIT plan on marching from the Central Park to the Legislative Assembly starting at 10 am, so avoid downtown too. These unions have workers employed in ICE (Electric Company), the public school system, and the CCSS (public health system). 

The protests are against the CAFTA treaty and organizers expect students, farmers and laborers to participate as well. Carlos Báez, Secretary of Conflicts of UNDECA (Caja Employees Union) stated that emergency and in-patient care services would function normally, but that other services would be affected.

In the next four years, the Ministry of Culture will spend $20 million to remodel the Antigua Aduana (old Customs Warehouse).  This was formerly used to clear freight import from Costa Rica’s ports by rail.  The Minister of Culture, Guido Sáenz, confirmed Wednesday that in January of 2006, the rebuilding of the structure will begin. 

The project is widely supported in the Legislative Assembly and the Interamerican Development Bank will fund the project. The reconstruction is inspired in France’s Parc  la Villette in Paris. The Parc de la Villette was developed as part of an urban renewal plan on the site the former national meat market and slaughterhouse.  According to galinsky.co… "Tschumi won a competition for the design of Paris’ largest park in 1982.

Related to his theoretical work on ‘event space’, his proposal for a distinctly urban park called for the deployment of a number of abstract, programless structures, dubbed ‘follies’. It was intended that the bright red structures would then house various events and groups related to the activities of the park. Many do just that, but not all, and not always the activities envisaged.

The design questions the conventional conception of a park as green open space. While there is plenty of grass here, the ‘natural’ park is clearly designed to express the fact that it is artificial, domesticated. Several thematic gardens are incorporated into the scheme, offering places of discovery and unexpected encounters and juxtapositions between seemingly natural and man-made artifacts."

The Costa Rican version will host cultural shows, fairs, expositions, recreational areas and will have parking for 400 cars.  In spite of the high cost and the fact that Minister Sáenz will be out of office in a few months, he insists that the project is a done deal. "La Aduana will pay for itself in the long term, from rentals generated by the activities. ", he said.

The project is backed by the French Embassy, and several private sector enterprises, who will sponsor it with money and technical assistance. 

Corporación Supermercados Unidos (owners of Mas X Menos, Pali, Hipermas and Maxi Bodega) should get a nice pat on the back from its new partner Wal-mart after the stampede of shoppers during the inauguration of the new Hipermas in Guadelupe.  The superstore is located at the old Gallito candy factory which was closed by Philip Morris when they bought the company.  The location is along the beltway, about 2 km north of Mall San Pedro and the intersection is commonly known as the "antiguo Gallito"

The store has parking for 454 cars, 31 cashiers, and  is now offering a fortnight of grand opening specials not available elsewhere in the chain.   But it wasn’t enough as 15,000 shoppers plowed into the store, which is the 4th of this kind for CSU, in the first six hours is was open. 

Also in this area, Pricesmart will be opening a fourth location very soon.  CSU invested $15 million in the store and the construction was done in the course of this year. A unique feature in the store, because of the small size of the lot it is built on, is the mechanical loading ramp.  Customers ride the ramp up and down with the shopping carts to the underground parking garage.