Rented a second Airbnb, to see some different parts of town. Wrong street address, so I walked up and down the street looking for the place or wifi. As I was walking along one block, the host greeted me, having seen me walking. Inside the place, which has like fifteen different locks on five different doors, the wifi didn't work. Tired, I went to sleep early.
In the morning, the wifi still didn't work, so I went walking, looking for wifi. I found a nearby university with weak wifi. After working for a while there, went for a longer walk to eat some food and take in some of the city. Some more down-and-out areas right outside of the city center.
A few blocks from the Airbnb, I took out my phone to look at the map. While I was looking at the map, three young male Africans walked by, probably teenagers. After they walked past me, they turned around and walked back towards me. At first I wasn't sure if they were going to ask me something, but when they were inches away from me, they pulled out knives and grabbed at my phone. I pulled back my phone, yelling to scare them off.
That's the second occasion in my first three days in Dominican Republic that people have tried (and failed) to rob me. It seems like a dangerous society, having large numbers of criminals.