Two years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico, residents were still struggling to rebuild. Then, just days into 2020, earthquakes began to rattle the island, leaving even more damage behind. Now one of the U.S. territory’s top architects is making the case for short-term assistance combined with long-term vision.
“Remember, two years ago, we went through two hurricanes, not one,” said Ricardo Álvarez-Díaz, chairman of the architectural firm Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón and a member of the Construction Council of Puerto Rico. “There is a lot of PTSD, trust me, after everything we’ve been through in the last couple of years.”
In the aftermath of the latest quakes, about $16 billion in federal funds was allocated to help the U.S. territory with disaster relief and prevention, pulled from the $20 billion approved by Congress a year ago to help with hurricane recovery. However, the Trump administration has decided to impose strict restrictions on the money, citing corruption and financial mismanagement.
Álvarez-Díaz said these concerns were largely overblown, but he’s glad the money is on its way.
“We hope that by next week the grant agreement will be signed, and hopefully you’ll see those funds start to trickle in and help with the recovery,” Álvarez-Díaz said.
In the long-term, though, Puerto Rico must invest in better infrastructure and building standards, Álvarez-Díaz told Cheddar.
“A lot of construction was done before 1987, and the codes were not amended to include seismic until 1987,” he said.
Puerto Rico, he added, is in a unique geographic position: It has to consider both horizontal (wind) and vertical (earthquakes) pressures on its structures, meaning durability is key.
Outside of retrofits and reinforcements, Álvarez-Díaz touts his own recent mixed-use development, Renaissance Square in San Juan, as an example of what the future may hold for the territory. The mixed-income development used higher quality materials with an eye toward sustainability.
“It has become a case study for what you can do,” he said.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
