A new duchess comes to town

Move over Paitilla and Punta Pacifica. With the screamingly frustrating traffic jams, even to pop around the corner to do the shopping at 99, and the views disappearing as more unheralded concrete blocks pop up, the duchess and dowager, are becoming passé, and a long ignored rival is moving front stage.

Bella Vista, which includes most of the new Coastal strip will become the place to be for those seeking a room with a view, and easy access to the family portals.

Take a stroll along Avenida Balboa from the Miramar Intercontinental past the Children’s hospital, and take a look at some of the shining new towers about to open, a a host of others well on the way.

Not only do they provide the best views in the city, including Casco Viejo, the Causeway, the Canal, Taboga and the fading delights of Paitilla, but they have easy access to the new bicycle and walking paths of Cinta Costera, and a widened thorough fare for those jaunts to dining out or socializing.

And if you want to mix with or be seen near the movers and shakers of the city from the head of the ATP to ex-presidents and reigning mandarins, there is Café Boulevard Balboa, which smartly moved in ahead of the new building burst.

The downside is there is no major shopping center, or supermarket within walking distance, but who in Panama walks anywhere?

And if you want to flaunt the cost of inhabiting one of the new glass and concrete cathedrals in praise of Mammon, take a look at the entrances that are now being finished. A good example is Destiny (right next door to Café Balboa) with an entranceway and foyer of Hollywood proportions, just crying for a red carpet for the opening ceremonies. Others along the way will surely be competing to match its unashamed opulence.

Oh, the other downside, the government will be adding an extra tax for the privilege of living there, ranging up to $14,000 for an apartment costing around $400,000. But, as the Rolls Royce salesman, on the corner of Berkley Square, London said: “If you have to ask the price sir, you can’t afford it.”

For the less well healed more towers are open or springing up in Bella Vista.

Calle 42, is losing its restaurants and old homes, demolished in anticipation of the new generation of “Beautiful residences. One only hopes that the basic infrastructure is able to cope, and that the resulting density will not make the side streets off Avenida Balboa another Punta Pacifica style traffic mess. Meanwhile, for those who want to rediscover walking, Riba Smith in Bella Vista is only 10 minutes away at golf walking speed.

PS. Mark Twain , said golf was a good country walk spoiled.

GASOLINE. With oil becoming cheaper by the day, gasoline prices at the pump are approaching record lows. Maybe that’s why Sarah Palin, another faded would-be duchess, keeps throwing the highly combustible mixture on the almost extinct embers of her failed campaign. She is now in full cry, blaming the media, her handlers, her running mate, and anyone else except the red neck base of her support, for an ultimately disastrous performance. No mention in her recent diatribes of her $150,000 plus, shopping sprees. No reference to taxpayer funds spent on family trips, or silk underclothes for her husband, or his unofficial interference inside the Governor’s Mansion. Is she priming the base for another shot, or finally locking the stable?