Several neighborhoods in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are mobilizing starting this Wednesday, June 4th, to demand improvements, which according to the spokesperson of the Popular Party (PP) in the capital city council, Jimena Delgado, shows that the citizens «are raising their voices against the inaction and abandonment of the government of Carolina Darias (PSOE).»
Specifically, this week there will be three neighborhood mobilizations in different areas, which Delgado pointed out as an «irrefutable proof of the widespread discontent» with a municipal government that «has lost its course and connection with the reality of the neighborhoods,» as reported by the PP in a press release.
The first neighborhood to mobilize will be Barrio Atlántico, where this Wednesday, June 4th, at 6:30 p.m., residents will gather on Guillermo Santana Rivero street to demand urgent improvements in basic infrastructures, such as green areas, stairs, accessible sidewalks, and the rehabilitation of the 242 homes in the neighborhood and the 210 in Lomo del Chinche.
Delgado explained that this is an area «over 30 years old» and that in the «last decade has suffered systematic neglect by the city council.»
The following day, Thursday, June 5th, it will be the turn of the Las Torres neighborhood, where starting at 1:00 p.m., residents will take to the streets to show their rejection, «for the second time,» of the modification of the General Urban Planning Plan in the area of Nueva Ciudad Alta.
This project includes the expropriation of 124 homes, «many» of them terraced houses built between the 1960s and 1970s, so the plan «could affect between 600 and 700 residents,» generating deep concern in a community that sees its history, way of life, and neighborhood identity threatened.
In this sense, residents criticize the «lack of transparency» in the process and fear that the construction of buildings up to 20 stories high «will radically transform the environment, as has already happened in other parts of the city, such as Guanarteme.»
The demonstration is convened under the slogan ‘In defense of our homes, let’s fight for a neighborhood for the working class and not for the rich.’ The PP spokesperson pointed out that this creates an «intolerable paradox coming from a government that proclaims itself to be left-wing.»
Finally, this Friday, June 6th, residents of the San José neighborhood, in the Cono Sur, will take to the streets to denounce the «lack of institutional attention and demand real improvements» for their surroundings.
For Delgado, these episodes of neighborhood mobilization «are not isolated incidents, but the logical consequence of 10 years of socialist governments that have systematically failed the city.» She added that it has been a decade of «unfulfilled promises, of constantly rising taxes, of a city that is increasingly dirty, more insecure, and with deteriorating public services,» emphasizing that Las Palmas de Gran Canaria «has regressed while the PSOE looked the other way.»
Thus, she indicated that it is «evident that this government has exhausted its project and its credibility,» emphasizing that «they are not up to the level that the first city of the Canary Islands deserves. Citizen discontent is growing, neighborhoods are rebelling, and the city council responds with silence and propaganda.»
