Reimagining, balancing, and placemaking in Rincón 

By Ángela S. Pérez Aguilar

Introduction

In 2021, a turtle was caught in a pool constructed near the ocean in Rincón, Puerto Rico (Mazzei & Rodriguez, 2021). The pool had been built by the real estate developers Condominio Sol y Playa following the destruction of the former pool in Hurricane Maria. The image of the turtle, stuck in the pool after having laid its eggs, went viral, sparking outrage on the island. Community members protested the construction of the pool while supportive lawyers took the case to court, arguing that the permit should never have been issued and that both the government and the developers were in the wrong. The government eventually announced that the construction needed to cease and that the pool would be demolished, protecting the coast and the turtles that have made their home there from the development.

Analysis

The fight to protect the coast in Rincón is part of a broader movement to defend the beaches in Puerto Rico from privately funded projects that will threaten public beach access. Developers and the state are willing to endanger the relationship between the community and its land for the sake of profit and to “brand” beach communities as “developed” or “global.” Friedmann (2010) writes about this phenomenon in urban contexts. He advocates for rehumanizing the urban, arguing that in doing so, planners can “take back what societal forces geared to maximizing profits and narrowly defined efficiencies have taken from us” (Friedmann, 2010, 152). Applying this to the context of coastal development in Puerto Rico, it is clear that developers and local governments are choosing profit and image over community interests.

This tension over ownership and potential futures calls for a shift in paradigm to reimagine the concept of ‘development.’ As Ananya Roy suggests, “For professions like architecture and planning, the disavowal of this rule of beauty is difficult because empire presents a range of aesthetic opportunities – to experiment, build, construct […] empire often asserts a Kantian equivalence of beauty and morality” (Roy, 2006, 16). When it comes to development on the Puerto Rican coast, what may come to mind are images of apartment buildings, pools, lounges, and villas, representing controlled ways to engage with the natural beauty of the beach. Looking to the future of coastal development, there is room to challenge these accepted ideas of beauty and aesthetic in beachfront development. Furthermore, the necessity to shape the coastline in a certain image or abiding by a certain aesthetic, is itself an exercise of imperial power that promises to shape natural resources to conform to imperial aesthetics at the expense of local enjoyment. In order to alleviate this tension between government and community, the imperial standards that shape the actions of the former must be challenged.

To achieve this rethinking of coastal development, the interests of the community must be centered in the coastal planning process in Puerto Rico. This can be done through further emphasis on the importance of “place attachment” (Shamsuddin & Ujang, 2008) and “human infrastructure” (Simone, 2004). The Puerto Rican Constitution of 1952, Article IV, Section 19 states that it will be government policy to exercise the “most efficient conservation of [PR’s] natural resources, as well as the greatest development and benefit of these for the general wellbeing of the community” (Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, 1952). Despite this, the island’s government has repeatedly been lax in enforcing these protections, leaving citizens to enforce coastal protection laws through social movements and organizing. Shamsuddin and Ujang consider “place attachment” essential to constructing a “sense of place,” referring to when the physical intertwines with the experiential. Simone’s idea of “human infrastructure” suggests that the intersections of people become “a platform providing for and reproducing life in the city” (Simone, 2004, 408). In reframing the values in place when carrying out coastal development, planners on the island can more effectively negotiate these interests.

Implications

Because of the importance of coasts to island communities, residents in Puerto Rico have constantly had to assert themselves by advocating for coastal protection, leading to the emergence of myriad social movements, like the one to save Rincón’s beach from the pool development, the protests to oust the U.S. militia from Vieques, and the fight to save Playuela. This struggle for communal access to beaches calls on us to center social movements as “insurgent planners” (Miraftab, 2009) that provide opportunities for collaboration with allies in the planning profession, academia and civil society (Perry and Rappoport, 2013). Perry and Rappoport argue for understanding Black and Indigenous communities’ social movements as “the seminar rooms from which knowledge emerges” (31) in order to envision alternative, possible futures. By viewing local communities’ social movements through these lenses, we can foreground local value systems and ways of experiencing the coastline and other contested natural spaces in planning.

While coastlines are geographically located on the edges of nations, they need not be on the margins in our approaches to planning. Beaches are natural resources that serve as sites of gatherings and intersections that reproduce culture and life on the island. The struggle for the coast invites us to question our ontologies of land classification and valorization: why should we consider the beach marginal to other sites of place-making (particularly urban ones), when they have proven so important to many communities? The fight for beaches in Puerto Rico (and beyond) invites us to consider beaches as centers of community where negotiations between public, private, and community interests are intensified. Considering this, we can imagine a new definition for critical international planning: Critical international planning is the kind that best negotiates the interests of various actors for the greatest benefit of those most impacted by planning decisions. It is “critical,” because planners are responsible for questioning the why and how of their paradigms to leverage the interests of these various actors.

The wall in front of the Sol y Playa condominiums, located in the maritime-terrestrial zone. Source: Photo taken by Pearl Marvell,  https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/04/quien-salvara-las-playas-de-puerto-rico/

Protesters stand behind a barricade that reads “This wall is illegal! Public domain,” Rincón, Puerto Rico, Monday, July 4, 2022. Source: Photo taken by Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels, https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/07/05/rinconbeachprotest/

A sign marking a turtle nest next to the wall at the Soly Playa Condominium. Source: Photo taken by Erika Rodriguez, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/06/us/puerto-rico-beaches-threats.html