U.S. Politicians Visit Puerto Rico, Promise Help

New York City’s mayor and some other regional politicians are getting to know Puerto Rico and promising more financial help for the flooding. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took office this past January, has been in Puerto Rico since last Thursday. According to New York City local TV station NY1, the mayor didn’t make a public appearance until Saturday morning. He met with the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia-Padilla.

The appearance of the mayor in Puerto Rico was related to a trip that de Blasio and other New York City and New York state politicians had taken. According to the Latin Post, the politicians were in town for the “Somos el Futuro” conference.

The politicians have been criticized for using the conference as a way to get support for special-interest issues and minority-related issues, according to reports. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito was pushed and supported by the mayor in her position earlier this year. He’s also made a number of high-profile appointments in his city cabinet to Latinos, including the schools chancellor, a deputy mayor, children’s services administrator and others.

Mark-Viverito is a native of Puerto Rico and has been advocating for federal assistance on the island, a U.S. protectorate, to stop flooding in a neighborhood of more than 27,000 people that gets backed up sewage when rains come. According to NY1, Mark-Viverito is arguing that the assistance is necessary because people in Puerto Rico don’t get equal representation in U.S. government.

“We have a very special relationship with this Island,” she said to NY1.

The mayor is backing the request for help to stop the flooding.

“This is a moment where people in this neighborhood need our help,” de Blasio said.

Neither made any mention of neighborhoods in New York City that suffered the same fate and the city has failed to help. Those residents have long been calling for help from the city to fix the problem, which was only exacerbated two years ago by the severe flooding of Superstorm Sandy.

Parts of neighborhoods in the areas of Broad Channel and the Rockaways flood regularly when it rains and suffer the same impact of backed up sewage and trash as the homes in Puerto Rico.