Why spend a week in Puerto Rico if you’re not going there for vacation?
From the notebook of Marketplace correspondent Andy Uhler, on an airplane to Puerto Rico.
I spend most of my days reporting on economics and how business and finance intersect with virtually everything we do. It sounds pretty dry, but it’s actually not as boring as you think. When Puerto Rico’s overwhelming debt became news to people outside of San Juan, I was assigned an “explainer” — essentially a minute-and-a-half spot that attempts to explain the ins-and-outs of an economic situation in terms basically everyone can understand. (I’d like to think that they asked me to do it because of my mad reporting skillz, but it probably also had to do with the fact that I speak Spanish.)
Over the course of more than six months, I’ve been Marketplace’s go-to reporter for all things Puerto Rico. I’ve reported on everything from that debt explainer to how the island is dealing with escalating health care costs, why hedge fund managers are asking the government to close schools. I’ve reported on the nuances of bankruptcy law and why Puerto Rico isn’t granted that protection as a territory. I’ve even reported about the presidential candidates’ approach to solving Puerto Rico’s economic problems from both sides of the isle.
I’ve done all of this reporting without going there to do it.
I call experts on the mainland to explain what’s happening on the island. I call Puerto Ricans to get them to tell me over the phone what they think of the economic crisis and how they’re feeling the effects. But my reporting was missing something. I can explain Puerto Rico’s debt crisis better than most, now, but I still don’t know what it feels like.
I wanted to get to the island to understand what it looks like, what is sounds like — even what it smells like. I want to talk with people I’m not going to be able to talk with by simply calling a university. I want to talk with small business owners and local politicians about what they think needs to be done. I want to talk with homeless people and school children that have to travel miles to get to class because the government was forced to close the school next to their house. I want to talk with real Puerto Ricans about what’s actually happening in Puerto Rico.
