Puerto Rico, formally known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Caribbean Island with a population of 3,142,779 people as of July 2021 (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). Puerto Rico has a rich culture that includes Spanish, American, and Afro-Caribbean influences (Greiner, 2018). Tropical rainforests cover part of the island’s landscape, while mountain ranges, including the island’s tallest, the Cordillera Central, cover the rest (López-Marrero & Castro-Rivera, 2019). The official languages of Puerto Rico are Spanish and English, with Spanish being the most widely spoken language on the island. The freedom of religion is guaranteed in Puerto Rico’s constitution, and the most popular faith is Roman Catholic, which is drawn from the island’s Spanish ancestry.
One urban issue that Puerto Rico is dealing with is the shrinking quantity of land available as a result of the increasing number of housing complexes that are springing up all across the island. Many new housing developments were built in Puerto Rico with more land around the homes. The reason is to create a more suburban feel to the homes and remove the swampy, crowded urban slums that came with living and working in the local cities. This is the result of suburbanization that was influenced by the culture and looks of the United States. However, it is evident that such an approach is unnecessarily roundabout and creates more complex issues for continuous life on the island.
Puerto Rico is an island with limited available space and these projects took up too much territory, and the home developments were also too expensive for most Puerto Ricans to afford. Consequently, these construction cities and homes turned into a waste of space and occupied grounds. Moreover, these constructions are taking place while relying on the old power grid that was severely damaged after Hurricane Maria in 2017 (López-Marrero & Castro-Rivera, 2019). The situation is approaching normalization, but power shortages remain relevant within the state as the new reinforced power grids are under construction plans. The issue of Puerto Rican urban development would remain open until the establishment of a sustainable and stable power source is completed.
Globalization is linked to this urban challenge due to the United States’ influence and cultural impact on the development efforts in Puerto Rico. The housing complexes’ goals were to build more urban areas, modernize Puerto Rico, and begin to transform the island into a more beautiful place with less swampy, congested places (Gluzmann et al., 2018). Globalization made it possible for cultures and ideas to travel across boundaries, influencing how Puerto Ricans attempted to improve their land and development. Therefore, it is doubtful that the situation will remain stagnant for a long period of time, especially, due to the US intervention and attention to the development of the area.
Geography also plays an enormous role in the urban problem of land usage in Puerto Rico. From June through November, Puerto Rico is exposed to tropical cyclones because of its location inside the Atlantic basin (López-Marrero & Castro-Rivera, 2019). Tropical cyclone research on the island is mostly focused on strong and land-falling systems. Cyclones of lesser strength or those that do not directly strike the island pose a threat to the island and its inhabitants (López-Marrero & Castro-Rivera, 2019). This fact further contributes to the need for careful, resilient and sustainable planning of urban areas.
References
Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). Central Intelligence Agency. Web.
Gluzmann, P., Guzman, M., & Stiglitz, J. (2018). An analysis of Puerto Rico’s debt relief needs to restore debt sustainability. Web.
Greiner, A. L. (2018). Visualizing human geography: at home in a diverse world. Hoboken, NJ:Wiley.
López-Marrero, T., & Castro-Rivera, A. (2019). Let’s not forget about non-land-falling cyclones: Tendencies and impacts in Puerto Rico. Natural Hazards, 98(2), 809–815. Web.