The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) will allocate a total of 10 million euros to “overcome social inequalities and the center-periphery dichotomy” divided into 20 projects presented by the municipalities. Among those chosen to be financed is the Integral Urban Regeneration Plan Les Planes-Blocs Florida, in Hospitalet de Llobregat, for which the city receives one million of the 2,4 of the total amount of the project (42%).
The Plan presented by the L’Hospitalet Town Hall It includes a list with 18 actions, since training in new technologies to cognitive stimulation old peoplegoing by social gardens and a project of historical memoryto name a few.
THE NEWSPAPER has spoken with four readers who know the idiosyncrasies of Florida well, your current situation and needs, to comment on this ambitious Plan with multiple objectives. “The list will look good as long as it becomes a reality and they are interested in publicizing the projects of neighborhood entities, that in the end they are the ones who are in the day to day with their people ”, the neighbor emphasizes first Monica Gainez
At 33 years old, Gañez fights from anonymity against inequality in this neighborhood considered highly complex. “I was born, I grew up and I still live in Florida”, This young woman with a degree in Audiovisual Communication and currently studying for a degree in Social Education proudly assures us.
This young woman thinks it’s very good that they invest in Support spaces for upbringing and education from 0 to 3 years old, because “everything that is to give tools and resources to improve the bond between families and children at those ages is important.” In these spaces, he adds, “families interact and that also fosters social cohesion.”
Gáñez regrets “the prejudices of the elderly and the distrust of the young” because the ideal, he maintains, would be Let each other exchange points of view. “People who have lived in the neighborhood for a long time have seen how conflicts between different cultures have increased over the years. They ask for more police, but act like ‘put out fires’ of conflicts it is not working on root problems”, points out the educator.
Empathy and equipment for young people
Beyond the rapper Morad, a highly controversial local figure that does not leave indifferent Florida, the youth of the neighborhood seeks referring. Like Gañez, who was always very clear that I wanted to “help others” although she does not consider herself such a thing: “I cannot be a reference when my basic needs have always been covered, and they have allowed me to study accompanied by people who have never let me down. I feel privileged in many ways”.
“What we must do as educators is be very empathetic, help them find what motivates them, have a illusion right now”, assures this neighbor of Floridawhich defends that young people need spaces to “your privacy and create your identity”, something that is complicated in the context of substandard housing. Hence, the investment in a new equipment for adolescents and young people. “We should take them more into account, listen to them, because in the end they are our future”.
another reader, Ivan Picazo, 44 years old, agrees when pointing out the lack of spaces for young people and celebrates that the creation of a sidecar facility has been planned with projects aimed at the youngest and initiatives such as the ‘taste of trades’ (trade workshops).
“Currently there are many patera floors and the kids don’t have their own room, they don’t have a place to study or draw, or do anything creative, and they end up on the street, where nothing good is learned”, says this ex-neighbor with a 16-year-old son. “This problem could get worse because as rents have risen and there is more need,” he adds, “some families may now consider subletting a room for the first time.”
After witnessing episodes of “violence in its purest form” Picazo decided to leave Florida last October. “In front of the house I have seen how a man was attacked with a katana, how a boy was stabbed to take away his scooter… We have even seen guns”, asserts this former neighbour, an electronic engineer and audiovisual designer now living in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia.
“I have lived there for about eight years, but I have visited Florida since I was little because of my grandmother. I remember playing with my cousins in the Plaza de la Llibertat, when in the 80s the custom of making vermouth in the bars and wineries of a lifetime was deeply rooted”, remember with nostalgia. All in all, Picazo applauds the AMB’s investment in his old neighborhood, with which he maintains a very close relationship. There he lives all his family.
“There are no bad people here”
Unlike Picasso, Francisco Solías he has never considered moving from the neighborhood where he was born 60 years ago. “Here I have most of my friends, I have to buy the most basic things… Here everyone treats me well, there are no bad people,” says a reader who during the conversation prefers to put the accent on accessibility and mobility in general and not so much in citizen security.
“I suppose the mayoress is doing what she can, but all this investment will not hurt, especially for enhance the public space. Because in general it is accessible, but it can be improved”, explains the reader, who walks with the help of a walker.
In Solías’ opinion, it is urgent to define a mobility plan, although I don’t say it exactly in these terms. “On my street, the avenue miraflorsthere are traffic jams every day, you find cars parked at pedestrian crossings and it is easy to find motorcycles circulating on the sidewalk”, lists a neighbor who considers that the historical problem of the neighborhood was born as a kind of dormitory city from the outskirts
“Many current problems are related to the very origin of the neighborhood, since it was used to accumulate people who did not fit in the city of Barcelona. That’s why, when they say that there are few police, I prefer to say that there are a lot of people”, This reader points out the high population density of the hospital neighborhoods, which ensures a very calm walk through the streets of La Florida.
Multicultural encounters and civility
Many people and very diverse. Florida is a melting pot of cultures, as another newspaper reader points out, Asensio Montoya, 65 years old, who puts the focus on civility and co-responsibility. “I think it is very necessary to create equipment such as ‘youth homes’ and civic centres To generate meeting points between people of different origins, organizing activities to share experiences and gastronomy, for example”, says this neighboring architect since he was 4 years old.
According to Montoya’s diagnosis, some civic campaign: “It is important to realize that the neighborhood is our homethat we all have to keep it in good condition”. However, the situation in the neighborhood is not new, continues the neighbor, because with the immigration of the 60s and 70swith the arrival of people from other parts of Spain, mainly from Andalusia and Extremadurafriction also occurred.
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“Those people did not feel that the neighborhood belonged to everyone, it seemed that it belonged to nobody. It was a jungle, but fortunately with time it improved. Now it’s time to do the same”, recalls an optimistic Montoya, who trusts the potential of a diverse and plural neighborhood.
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