*By Sofía Negrín and Natalia Torres.
The situation experienced by businesses in the area of Rambla de Pulido, Avenida Islas Canarias and Rambla de Santa Cruz itself, as reported by DIARIO DE AVISOS a few weeks ago, needs imaginative solutions to revitalize the area, facilitating access from customers to local businesses that, as everyone recognizes, were seriously damaged by the passing of the tram. From the Municipal Management of Urbanism, its person in charge, Carlos Tarife, has wanted to point out some of these solutions suggesting that tram and cars can circulate on the same road, and thus he intends to communicate it to the Cabildo, which is responsible for the operation of the light rail. in the metropolitan area.
The mayor of Urbanism shares the diagnosis made by the merchants. “I can only agree, from the first moment, the tram project was not inclusive, and it has greatly affected the shops of Rambla Pulido, so I think that such consequences will have to be verified in the future.”
The mayor is in favor of creating dialogue tables with the Cabildo itself, “which is the one that has the tramway easement passage, so that in some steps, even where there is commercial life, study that vehicles could circulate on the same routes as the tram, which could generate parking spaces in some places, or sidings in some points, or loading and unloading spaces ”. This proposal would seek to avoid what is now being experienced in Rambla Pulido. “In Rambla Pulido and Islas Canarias it went from having three lanes to one, and the consequence is what we are seeing, many premises that are rented or sold, an area that has suffered an obvious deterioration”, he explained.
For this reason, with the experience of these areas, “we should try to agree with the Cabildo that the traffic through some streets that the tram passes also admit the passage of vehicles, and that is something that is done in other European cities such as Brussels.” This model, defends the mayor, should have been applied throughout the general highway where the tram passes.
Urbanism understands that this would have been a good way to avoid the deterioration that the area suffered, the same one that now trusts that it can be resumed if, finally, the project of the rehabilitation of the Plaza de Toros, as advanced by DIARIO DE AVISOS last Sunday, it went ahead after the approval of the Cabildo. For the mayor, dialogue with the Cabildo in this project, but in any other that affects the city, is vital.
As for the Plaza de Toros, the news has been received with joy by the majority of citizens, who hope that with this project 591 parking spaces will be created under the building’s moat, a five-storey housing block and the use of from the square itself, which would retain its façade in its entirety. In addition, he hopes that it will be a commercial use, but also a meeting point for residents and visitors to the area.
