My research question is: How is gentrification by wealthy US citizens affecting Puerto Rico property/real estate/ability to be houses?
This topic interests me because I am from Puerto rico. There have been many times I have visited and every single day was a different story to tell. Through the years, I’ve noticed how much Puerto Rico changed in terms of neighborhoods, prices, the environment, etc. When I was younger, Puerto Rico was more lively in terms of seeing more people outside gardening everyday, hearing the roosters every morning at 6am, and seeing my family who I haven’t seen in a while as we went to different places. It was August of 2022, I went with my parents and my little sister to Puerto Rico to visit family we haven’t seen in years. I loved being there because the weather wasn’t so hot like it is in New York. It was always sunny, hot, but had a cool breeze that didn’t make me complain about the heat so much. But, something felt different. First it was the fact that I didn’t hear any roosters the first morning I was there. You don’t see anybody in the neighborhood as much as I did before. We always spoke to every neighbor we came across because we were all close. The neighborhood where I grew up looks abandoned. Nobody lives in this neighborhood. The streets were very quiet. By the way, this was after Hurricane Maria happened in Puerto Rico. A lot of roofs on houses were torn, trees and branches along the streets, houses that look like they were never cleaned before. It was as if there was an apocalypse, it was sad. This made me want to know what caused these people to leave their neighborhoods. Why isn’t the United States helping out Puerto Rico in terms of healthcare, taxes, homes, gentrification, etc. Why is it now that wealthy people are trying to take one’s property and build their own? Now wealthy people are starting to build houses and make Air BNB’s.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/puerto-rico-gentrification.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/opinion/puerto-rico-supreme-court-social-security.html
https://www.pbs.org/video/inside-puerto-ricos-crumbling-healthcare-system-kmr7id/
Ok looks good. Can you work in the phrase — I already know that — and connect it to some of things you write about showing that you already know some things about this issue. Look at the pargraph template.
FOLLOW CLOSELY THE TEMPLATE using the sentence starters!
I really like your research question, I personally can related to why you decided to write about this topic because in my home country of Jamaica it is not uncommon to hear similar stories of the native people in communities being pushed out because of gentrification. Its so refreshing to hear a person that is apart of the Puerto Rican culture talk about how their Island is being negatively effected by gentrification.
This seems like a very interesting topic. I can relate to you also because I’am Puerto Rican and every time I talk to a relative who lives there or travels there frequently they always have something negative to say on how the rich buying up all the land. Mostly to get off on taxes. So I’am excited to learn more about your topic.