Tired of spending 42 years demanding a solution that they consider fair, a safe entry and exit to the neighborhood from the TF-5, the residents of La Rambla, in San Juan de la Rambla, have formed a platform to make themselves heard. They began in January and will continue to do so every Sunday at twelve noon with a caravan of vehicles and banners alluding to their claim until the end of the month.
Given the lack of response, those affected will intensify the protests and warn that “they won’t stop until they see movement or shovels starting the works,” the spokesperson for ‘Todos con la Rambla’, Adela Abreu Chávez, told this newspaper.
This was decided on Tuesday after a meeting to agree on the measures to be adopted from now on, among which is a demonstration -pending the corresponding permit from the Government Subdelegation- scheduled for March 6 that will run through the hull and It will conclude at the entrance of the neighborhood.
They also do not rule out sit-ins in front of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo de Tenerife, for which they will also need permission, the two administrations with powers in matters of Roads and therefore, those that must offer alternatives to this black point of the municipality in which already Several accidents have occurred. “It is incredible that no one in charge of these two administrations has contacted the neighbors,” he laments.
The same cannot be said of the mayor, Ezequiel Domínguez, and of the entire Municipal Corporation, by whom the neighbors feel supported. They know that the president is making all possible efforts with the aforementioned administrations and that this year they have intensified -he himself confirms- due to the neighborhood concentrations. “I hope that everything that has been worked on has good results for La Rambla,” he maintains.
“They ask us why these mobilizations now when we have been 40 years without demanding anything. And the answer is very simple: the traffic has increased, especially with the road from Icod to El Tanque, which many citizens of the North use to go south and the traffic is denser, both to go out and to enter. And it will be even more so when the section of the Insular Ring that passes through the municipality is finished and, therefore, the danger will increase, ”explains Adela.
But he denies that they have not claimed it before. “Perhaps not like now, but we have been demanding a solution for years,” she emphasizes. In addition, “seeing that they were asphalting, doing works and passing through here, we thought it was the right time.”
The same situation occurs with the bus stop, an action that the neighbors consider “inconceivable that it has been projected at the entrance and exit of the neighborhood instead of looking for the solution of how to cross to be able to take public transport. They have started the house from the roof, it is not understood ”, he criticizes.
The residents of La Rambla are tired of being put in front of the difficulties that exist to enter and exit one of the main accesses to the municipality, such as lack of visibility due to palm trees, cruets and a concrete wall; the affection to a protected area, in this case the Ruiz ravine, or a change in elevation, when, in his opinion, “the latter is easy to solve”.
“We do not want to be told that it cannot be done, we want solutions,” they insist.