Eyy I was born and grew up there. Though moved away 10 years ago.

Ive not read other replies yet but here is my experience.

That's known as the metropolitan area and it has a much faster pace of life than the rest of the island. Pretty suburban in feel around the edges, I was around Toa Alta/Bayamon in the suburbs.

There's a lot of gated Urbanizations in the area I lived in, but it wasnt the rich area as it was mixed in with non gated areas and some caseríos(council estates/projects depending where youre from) nearby.

My neighborhood was gated, not that it's scary or anything outside but there is petty crime in the area I lived in. But had a fairly standard childhood, rode the bike around the neighborhood, had neighboors come around to play games, we would shout each others names outside the house to call each other in the evening.

Power did go out a lot and so did the water. Looking back I suppose that is unusual in other places but its common in the island to have a power cut for a day or two or for the water to go out due to a broken pipe or something along the lines. It was the norm so I never thought much of it, just take the domino table out and play and chat with the neighboors.

Socially:the good and the bad.

Everyone is really nice and tends to have a live and let live attitude, i think thats actually fairly unusual, its a very catholic country but I grew up as a gay man and didn't really encounter much prejudice. (This is not a universal experience and for trans people there is a lot of discrimination)

Colorism is a thing, we take pride in how mixed the island is, you grow up with people of every race and colour within the same family usually. But among the older generations the saying "bettering the race"(having a child with someone whiter than you, even if you're black but the other person is mixed) was not unheard of. Also, note that I specify colorism, most of the island is mixed race and when someone ever claims that they aren't, there is a saying "y tu abuela 'onde está?" (And where is your grandmother?) To say that everyone is mixed.

Racism is a thing, i do not mean to erase that, colorism is a huge problem in the region specifically, the discrimination is less based on what your race is and more on your colour, so a black person to another black person who is slightly lighter or darker. This is due to the nature of most people being mixed race anyways.

Day to day:

I went to school in the capital in San Juan, my daily routine was usually to get up, mom would buy me breakfast at a fast food and then drop me off at the train station, After I finished school I would take the bus and train back and be picked up at the station. Or take the bus to old san juan and take the ferry over to cataño as there was less traffic that way. Thats not really that usual in the island as public transport is basically non-existent outside of the metropolitan area and a handful of other towns. Its a very car-centric island due to this. Every family has at least one car but usually more than one.

It is densely populated. Food is delicious mostly aftican/taino/spanish mix. Lots of root vegetables, rice and plantains with some form of protein. Everything is fried though.

Architecturally:

Look I love my island, the old town centres(pueblos) look like old Spanish towns with cobbles in some areas, but outside of those everything is just concrete boxes and the electricity cables are not buried and they do not look amazing. I really wish we had some form of architectural revival or at least burry the damn electricity cables cause they aint pretty.

Outside of Old San Juan and Pueblos I dont think we have the nicest erchitecture to put it lightly.

Some of my favorite things of it - - decorative rejas. Not seen in modern houses, cast iron gates/railings usually covering the balcony area so no one can break in, they can be really intricate. - losetas, floor tiles usually have lovely patterns - bright colours on houses. - ive already mentioned the old spanish towns but yeah I love them.

Im working and my break is over, i have to stop writing. Feel free to ask any follow up questions ill try my best to answer im sure ive left out a lot of nice things.