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Puerto Rico city is recovering from natural disasters and lost tourism
Ponce, Puerto Rico – Taxi driver Raul Garcia used to rely on the historic city center for a steady income. He sometimes earned $ 100 a day.
But no more, as tourism has dried up in the city center in the past two years.
Garcia now stands near a car park where he used to pick up passengers. It’s full of bricks that fell off the walls of a dilapidated old store.
“Since nobody comes to the city center right now, we don’t have many passengers,” he says. Now if you get $ 40 [a day], That’s a lot.”
The tourism crisis in Ponce is the result of a series of disasters in recent years, including a hurricane in 2017, earthquakes and aftershocks earlier this year, and the Coronavirus pandemic. The disaster streak threatens the identity of this 150-year-old city, which holds a distinct place in Puerto Rican history and culture.
Today a spider web cracks across the facades of colorful historic buildings in Ponce. More than 100 buildings have been seriously compromised, and an orange warning tape surrounds about 30 of them as they wait to retrieve them.
The city strives to boost tourism, but having a historic district without historic buildings to visit makes this difficult.
“Architecture is the only art in the world that you can enter,” says Andy Rivera, founder and president of the Association of Historic Building Sketches of Puerto Rico, which documents the region’s building heritage.
Tourists can enter a dwindling number of historic buildings in Ponce. Many historic sites and businesses have closed, and many museums have closed.
For decades, residents and tourists have roamed this southern coastal city of about 132,000, lured by its sophisticated architecture, gentle mountains and the gorgeous blue waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Ponce’s buildings, many of which were constructed in the 19th century, display a range of architectural styles, from Spanish colonial and neoclassical to Art Deco and Art Nouveau. There are fountains, churches, museums, hotels, and historic homes, and together they make for a feast of vibrant pink, powdery blue and sunflower yellow. A 138-year-old building, now a fire museum, is painted red and black stripes.
Ponce is the only city in Puerto Rico on the European Art Nouveau route, a guide that highlights cities, such as Vienna and Barcelona, with buildings that feature elegant lines, bright colors, and detailed craftsmanship of the late 19th century Art Nouveau style.
“Pons is one of the [Puerto Rico’s] Rivera says.
It’s unclear if Hurricane Maria dampened tourism in Ponce, but experts agree it didn’t help, as it hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 with 155 mph winds and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Then a major earthquake in January struck 34 historic buildings in Ponce, including three museums, which were forced to close.
Aftershocks followed, and another earthquake struck in early May. Earthquakes and earthquakes have weakened dozens of buildings listed on the federal government’s National Register of Historic Places.
Then the coronavirus pandemic crushed the city’s tourism industry. Pons has confirmed 285 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Puerto Rico’s Ministry of Health. Puerto Rico has a population of about 3.2 million, and there are more than 31,000 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 and 424 deaths. Several high-ranking officials have recently fallen ill, resulting in the Senate being closed for more than two weeks.
In July 2019, around 7,500 tourists were registered in hotels and guesthouses along Puerto Rico’s southern coast, with Ponce being the main attraction. At the same time this year, the streets, restaurants and shops here were almost empty.
It was a sad sight for Milena Aguilar, the co-founder of Isla Caribe, a tour company focused on the Historic District.
In a typical week, Aguilar says 350 people tour the Historic District. This year, during the summer season, she did two tours with two people each.
“Everything has stopped,” she says. “Everything related to tourism is paralyzed.”
Earthquakes, aftershocks and an epidemic combined to delay the start of repairs and renewal of tourist attractions, says Crystal Bell, director of the Pons office of tourism, industrial and economic promotion.
Additionally, Aguilar and Rivera say Pons’ tourism challenges included poor museum maintenance and erratic schedules.
Bell says officials will conduct an in-depth study of the commercial sector as the city seeks to stimulate tourism, find more financing for small businesses and boost the region’s economy.
The Puerto Rican Culture Institute is working with Ponce officials on a plan to rebuild the historic district, while the city has hired a private company to inspect abandoned buildings, including homes, to determine which ones should be demolished.
Rivera worries that Ponce will demolish some of its most distinctive homes, and many of its designs – with their generous curves and high ceilings – are unique to Puerto Rico.
Between the passage of time, lack of maintenance, and natural disasters, Rivera says, “We are [already] Lose them little by little. ”He says this means a huge loss in tourism dollars and economic opportunity.
Bell says this could be a moment to reimagine the tourism industry in Ponce.
“It’s a real challenge because first we want to identify the money we have, and from there we work collectively to implement a strategic plan, taking into account the new realities we’ve faced since Hurricane Maria,” she says.
Aguilar sees an opportunity, too – in virtual tourism. She says the digital solution may help Ponce with some long-standing challenges, including a lack of promotional funds and a lack of mass transit. Taxi or ride-sharing service from San Juan, about 117 kilometers (73 miles), can cost about $ 125 per trip.
Her company’s virtual tour introduces the region’s coffee-making history and sells products such as coffee, mugs and handcrafted sweets.
“More than anything, we want people to understand and acknowledge this history, and to participate in keeping this legacy alive and active,” Aguilar says. “We want them to love our city.”
Sarah DeVries, GPJ, translated this article from Spanish.
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