A lot of the posts lately

We need to remain focused on helping new members and get away from criticism and topics unrelated to the mission. Yes, me included.

I totally agree with you ReyP, I was thinking the same. The site is not for political posts.

ReyP wrote:

We need to remain focused on helping new members and get away from criticism and topics unrelated to the mission. Yes, me included.

I agree with you... the job seekers, the investor seekers asking for money, the attorneys seeking clients all should be removed and redirected to the business section.

And the political stuff...

Thanks Rey...

Absolutely right on Rey! This board is not for those issues about life in PR after the hurricane that are talked about now every single day in every newspaper, radio, and TV station in PR and every major new organization in the western world. Let them cover that stuff.

New members want to know where to live, what  are rents like, the housing real estate values, how are the schools in certain areas, should they live in SanJuan or near the beach or in the mountains, east coast like Palmas or Guaynabo or west coast like Rincon or North coast like Aguadilla or Toa Baja, employment opportunities, the food and best supermarkets, popular entertainment, health insurance, medical care, public transportation, best beaches, that kind of stuff.

Let's help the new members who are moving to PR.

And Zeus, you forgot the guy selling insecticides.

Well then, my post regarding the status of Old San Juan after Maria was out of bounds, even though I'm going down to my apartment there in two weeks.

Never mind.

I won't bother anybody here any more.

Hi! From what I went able to put together from social media is OSJ has no power and no water. Debris have not been picked up which is contributing to flooding, especially in Fernandez Juncos. There was a electrical pole with lines hanging over calle Fortaleza that hadn't been removed but idk if it's still there. I've also read "Vega Baja and Western/Viejo San Juan have electricity. Their power lines are below ground." but I'm not sure how much is true from that.

lgustaf wrote:

Never mind.

I won't bother anybody here any more.

I am sorry you feel that way, but the site has strict rules when it comes down to politics and the Admin team have been very generous with allowing posts to stay or to be posted.

Rules are rules
TERMS AND CONDITIONS

I don't use Facebook (loathe it - hate the bickering and vanity) and haven't been following the post-hurricane posts much. Two small remarks I hope we can keep in mind: First, “politics” can mean a lot of things. Fully agree that partisanship is out of bounds. But what if the comments are informative and analytical? These can be very helpful to newbies trying to understand PR. Guess that distinction comes down to judgment and temperance.

Second, it's good to focus on helping new members but I believe that alone would be an overly restrictive view of the site's mission. After all, most users of the PR forum appear to not be newbies.

Mind, I'm not disagreeing with Rey's decision. Just throwing in my two cents on moderation.

Switzerland has a site for English speakers and it is full of hatred and vitriol (thankfully not coming from Americans). I no longer use it, so I understand Rey's desire to avoid such a facebookesque fate for our happy forum.

I have read the terms and conditions three times but I think it is translated from French they say, so maybe adds to the hard read.

Anyway, can you please point out these rules you refer? I don't see any lingo regarding topics other then "a broad range" lingo. Am I missing something here? Please advise so everyone, including me, is in queue.

There are very very few people, since Maria, posting in this forum, three or four? All good posters, and the odds of attracting new members migrating to PR in the next year are not bright in view of the situation. Probably zero. People aren't likely to move to a place with unreliable water, no reliable power for the next 6 months, with signs of destruction like a war zone all around them. Unless they are required to do so.

So it is sad to see another and yet another poster saying good by. This guy, a good poster who has added alot in the past and who has property there, only asked if the water is on in Old SJ.

Didn't deserve that crappy response, not at all, even if there is such a rule. What possible rule could that violate. So I don't blame him.

Looking forward to you pointing out what rules you are talking about which I probably missed, if I did I apologize for wasting your time, but it would be very helpful. Thanks.

I think the moderators need to show a little bit of patience. The recent tragedy in PR continues to be the main concern in people's mind. Give it time, the board will slowly return to normal.

However, if every original post on any subject quickly turns into political arguments, I definitely agree that the moderators should take action to remedy the situation.

The basic intent is to keep the site informative while avoiding all the matirial that can result in members becoming polirized and argumentative. The site is not meant to be a social club or place to push foward opinions or a historic recod.

Lots of posts about the storm and providing aid have little long term value to new members since the EMERGENCY situation will eventualy move from emergency to maintenance and rebuild.

What would be of value would be articles like:
Build versus buy a home
Rent or buy
Rent to own
Buying a rust bucket vs new car
Avoiding paying taxes
What sort of crops do well in the south, north, east or west of PR
What common items in the US are hard to find in PR
Many more ....

I respectfully disagree, Rey. I think you are taking an overly-narrow view of the forum. For instance, the header of this site on the general forum page is

"Expat forum[:]
Ask your questions and share your experience on life abroad.".

Surely that is what commentators on our happy forum are doing even when their posts deviate from your list of acceptable topics of discussion.

ReyP wrote:

The basic intent is to keep the site informative while avoiding all the matirial that can result in members becoming polirized and argumentative. The site is not meant to be a social club or place to push foward opinions or a historic recod.

Lots of posts about the storm and providing aid have little long term value to new members since the EMERGENCY situation will eventualy move from emergency to maintenance and rebuild.

What would be of value would be articles like:
Build versus buy a home
Rent or buy
Rent to own
Buying a rust bucket vs new car
Avoiding paying taxes
What sort of crops do well in the south, north, east or west of PR
What common items in the US are hard to find in PR
Many more ....

Rey,

I know you have good intentions, but must disagree with this approach.

A narrow and overly restrictive construct of the sites objective only stifles the conversations. 

Granted, there have been a few jerks, ( on any public site, that is inevitable) but they have been dealt with effectively and problem solved.

We currently have a very limited number of members posting on this site.  If they / we stop posting the site will become irrelivant and abandoned.

Could not agree more with the above clearly correct disagreements with Rey's singularly subjective suggestion of an "intent" of Expat.

Or else delete 90% of the very informative posts P.M.

I have read very little that would stir an argument.

For example, does saying Trump deserves a 10 only if it on a scale of 100 instill or offend?

It might, it's clearly political which some say without any Board rule in support is verboten, but considering the source I think he has the right to say it and it was in context of the current situation and I found his post very, very informative to past or new members. But that post would not be allowed with these subjective parameters of what is allowed on the PR Forum.

I would not find info about where crops grow very helpful but that's my subjective feeling and would simply not read it..

Anybody new (to this site)  who visits here should know what a mess the island is now and whoever is thinking of moving here should either have a big load of money to able to get a place with a generator, water tanks, know how to maintain and fill or know someone to pay to take care of that.
They should also be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting in line in stores and banks and realize that many things are not available.

The most sensible thing to do would be to postpone any moving plans until the situation improves.

I would suggest anybody interested in the island right now to follow David Begnaud, the CBS journalist on Twitter. He's reporting from and about the actual situation.

One of his tweets from today is:
"Today, in Puerto Rico, 34 days after Maria:
76% of the island is without power
26% is without water
It's 86 degrees there today."

Who in his right mind would think about moving here right now...

Also, if the moderators (not Rey, who is a volunteer like I am) will start deleting posts like this one I will contact Julien, the founder and owner of this site whom I have known (online) for over ten years. He's a very reasonable guy and will do the right things.

Thank you, Gary, for keeping it real.

I've been following David Begnaud and WAPATV. These are folks in the trenches telling it like it is on a day to day basis.

My apartment is right in San Juan, not out in the sticks, and to date there is no power,  no water, and no ETA on when there will be.

And if nobody's investigated the backstory on how Whitefish got the contract to rebuild the power grid, you should.

Let's see if my post gets deleted.

I can tell you a little bid of the southwest part of the island, from Guayanilla towards Yauco, Sabana Grande and up to Mayaguez area. I would agree with most of the comments regarding the island right now. Some parts the power and water is already been restored, BUT communications are scattered at best. Internet is almost non existent in most parts of the island. Utilities are in a re build mode and very hard to get new services installed. Stores are stocked but some items are limited. Bottle water is hard to find.
I will say, now is not a good time to move to the island to venture out. It will be almost impossible to find a rental property. Most hotels in the metro area are full with relif workers. If I were a person thinking about re locating to the island, I will wait a few months until the island is more stable.
For those of us with property in the island and that are alredy there is different, some have left to wait it out for different reasons. If you have an ecomerce business you need internet access to work. If you have small kids and you have the means, go to the mainland until things settle. We both travel for work and I have been traveling to the island back and forth ever since before the hurricane. Wife is state site until we can get power and electric back in the house. Every week I see the difference and the way things are moving towards some type of stability.  And I imagine it will be a few months before we see somewhat stability around our area.

lgustaf wrote:

Thank you, Gary, for keeping it real.

I've been following David Begnaud and WAPATV. These are folks in the trenches telling it like it is on a day to day basis.

My apartment is right in San Juan, not out in the sticks, and to date there is no power,  no water, and no ETA on when there will be.

And if nobody's investigated the backstory on how Whitefish got the contract to rebuild the power grid, you should.

Let's see if my post gets deleted.

I don't have the answer to that, based on what I have read, most big companies wanted money up front and a security that the island can pay. Also they wanted someone with some type of mountain working experience because of the damages to the lines across the central region. Apparently this company had done some work it that regards. Only time will tell us if this was another plot of some politicians to make an extra buck. It will not surprised me if it was.

I saw the CNN interview with the guy from Whitefish MT.  Given PREPA's financial condition, I'd say he is taking a gamble accepting the contract.  He may wait awhile to get paid.

Since he brings experience in working in mountanous terrane it may be a good choice.

Those are very juicy salaries and contracts, I bet if PREPA employees where getting super well payed like those guys from Cobra and WhiteFish, they would be very motivated to do a good job. 20-30 dollars an hour compared to 200+ dollars an hour. Then again one will never know.

To those that disagree with me: I understand your point of view.
I see that people have started laying down the facts of the situation in PR without the finger pointing that was occurring before, that is good.

Some linemen with Whitefish had a $460/hr pay scale, almost three times as much as the average for disaster relief linemen on any other project. The only other public project Whitefish had prior to Maria was repairing a 5-mile line stretch in Texas.

Everything about the cozy contract was suspect.

lgustaf wrote:

Some linemen with Whitefish had a $460/hr pay scale, almost three times as much as the average for disaster relief linemen on any other project. The only other public project Whitefish had prior to Maria was repairing a 5-mile line stretch in Texas.

Everything about the cozy contract was suspect.

An article came out the white fish employees were only getting paid $63 per hour. 👀

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nyt … o.amp.html

Yes, I saw that, too.

Up to $460/hr was the billing amount. So what gives? Was Techmanski lining his pockets? A big kickback to Zinke?

The whole deal was suspect from the onset.

I think we're confusing the cost structures of the different enterprises, no? Doesn't the $460 per hour incorporate Whitefish's costs and not just pure profit?