In the ninth episode of Living In The Map, hosted by Regrid CEO Jerry Paffendorf, he sits down with long-time friends & collaborators Giancarlo Gonzalez and Victor Ramirez. They sit down to share their expertise on property & infrastructure in Puerto Rico.

Giancarlo is the co-founder and CEO of Urbital, as well as the author of From Intention to Action: A Plan for the Digitalization of Puerto Rico. Victor Ramirez is a software developer and urbanist based in Puerto Rico.

Key Moments from the Episode - 

00:00:00 - Introduction of the episode’s guests - Giancarlo Gonzalez & Victor Ramirez. 

00:15:00 - The three discuss public data & accessibility across the US.

00:45:00 - Large-scale mapping events and the job of government sources to make data legible and usable.

01:00:00 - At this point, the conversation moves towards the housing shortage in Puerto Rico and the impact of Airbnb conversions on housing availability. There are more than 300,000 vacant and blighted houses on the island, accounting for 20% of all housing units. At this time, there is not a program in place to address the issue of housing availability effectively. 

01:15:00 - Gonzalez and Ramirez address the need for more action from the property tax agency to tackle the housing crisis. They propose implementing better tax systems that address abandoned properties with land value taxes. They cite a method used in Detroit to determine which properties were abandoned by identifying which homes were not consuming basic utilities. 

01:30:00 - A discussion on the history of land settlement in Puerto Rico and how it has influenced property development on the island over time. Gonzalez and Ramirez mention the challenges faced by American states with inaccurate or partial property data. 

01:45:00 - The group finishes up with a discussion of centralizing zoning definitions in Puerto Rico.