The La Arboleda Neighborhood Associationwhich brings together the interests of the neighborhoods of Salamanca, Uruguay and Acacia de Santa Cruz, wanted to put on paper the complaints you’ve been hearing for years of the residents and merchants of this area of the chicharrera capital. For this, they have carried out an opinion poll of 100 businessmen and 35 residents of the neighborhood in order to know their opinion on the quality of life, “identifying the deficit of needs to establish a synergy of collaboration between the association and the official organisms , to find the right solutions that imply an improvement in the quality of life and well-being of citizens”, as explained in the result of the survey to which DIARIO DE AVISOS has had access. A survey carried out at street level that reflects that the main concern of the residents has to do with insecurity and the phenomenon of squats. It is followed in that order of concerns by street cleaning, garbage containers, lack of parking, help for the homeless, maintenance of roads and sidewalks, lighting and the request for a dog park.
The feeling of insecurity that prevails in the Salamanca district is backed up, according to those surveyed, by figures such as the 21 robberies that they claim have occurred in homes, businesses and neighbors in the last year: “Most are not reported by fear of reprisals and because of the time required to process the complaints”, they point out. Thus, they detail that, at the intersection of Calle de Salamanca with Islas Canarias, a commercial nerve center, “thefts, threats and insults have increased notably; also people who occupy the sidewalks and litter the streets by leaving containers of alcoholic beverages on the sidewalks, even detecting the consumption and sale of narcotics on the same street”.
They go on to describe the situation stating that “some shop assistants are afraid and even panicked by the insults and harassment they receive from certain “controversial drug users”, sometimes taking products without paying and harassing their customers, especially older people, asking for money. All this in the midst of a great economic and social crisis”. They demand a greater police presence and propose the creation of a Neighborhood Police, whose presence acts as a deterrent.
This concern is also reflected in an old demand from the Salamanca district, which is none other than the request that the San Miguel Center be moved, “which does a great job, but which implies that some of its users stay all day in the neighborhood, causing inconvenience to the neighbors.
As for the squatted buildings, they say that it is worrying “the increase in squats in the neighborhood (Febles Campos street, Pedro Pinto, Obispo Pérez Cáceres), due to the insecurity of the sale of narcotics, fights and fires, as in the old building of Diario de Avisos and the three-storey building on Pedro Pinto street. There is a widespread feeling among merchants that the municipal police only appear to fine double-parked vehicles and not to guarantee the safety of citizens,” they state in the document.
The second of the issues that most often came up in the survey carried out by La Arboleda was that of cleaning the streets, especially in relation to the plague of cockroaches and mice that they assure is present in the neighborhood. “Especially, deterioration is detected, even in the facades of buildings and urban furniture, due to the urine of dogs, generating a bad smell and a bad image,” they affirm. “Businessmen often demand that they come to clean, some even have to clean their sidewalks,” they add, later denouncing the presence of “a plague of cockroaches and mice from the public sewer, which is unpleasant not only because it produces disgust, but also because they can transmit contagious diseases”. For this reason, “cleaning, washing down and brushing with pressurized water hoses are requested more frequently, disinfecting the streets and sidewalks.”
