The organizers of the protest rally this Tuesday, June 28, 2022 by the situation of the Iders buildingin Cross portwill maintain the call even if the eviction occurs, by court order, of the last squatters who remain in this building declared “in imminent ruin”. The spokesperson for the residents and businessmen affected by the abandonment of the Iders, Edward Louismakes it clear that “whatever happens” in the hours leading up to the protest, they will gather to demand an immediate solution: “We wouldn’t leave even if a shovel came to start tearing down the building”.
The rally will take place between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. in the pedestrian zone of Familia Betancourt and Molina avenues., next to the Iders building. «We will be there and a very good assistance is expected, since there are many neighborhood communities and companies affected by this unbearable situation. We are fed up and we want to make it clear”, explains Eduardo Luis.
After the attempted voluntary eviction of the last occupants of the Iders, last week, the City Council requested judicial authorization to be able to forcefully remove people who refuse to leave the property, despite the fact that the declaration of imminent ruin makes it clear that its integrity is at risk. For Edward Louis, «Unfortunately, the police deployment of a few days ago has not served for anything. And there they continue, entering and leaving freely because they couldn’t even leave the door closed, since there are people who, we don’t know how, have registered in the Iders building,” Luis details.
In the opinion of the spokesman for the residents and businessmen affected by the leaders, «what happened the other day has only served to fix the door. Everything remains the same”. For Edward Louisit is incomprehensible that people have been allowed to register in a building that they do not own, that is in an unhealthy and dilapidated situation, and that lacks water and electricity.
The Porto City Hall awaits judicial authorization to empty the Iders and Edward Louis acknowledges that “when that eviction occurs, we will applaud it.” The demands of those affected are very clear: eviction, cleaning, disinfection, closure and demolition.
“When the eviction occurs, we will applaud it”
“It is sad that we had to call a protest rally so that the Porto City Council woke up, but that reaction is welcome, because what we have lived through for so many years is unbearable. We want to live in peace and not surrounded by garbage, rats and insects by a building that is falling apart in the middle of the city”, insists Luis.
The roadmap of Porto Town Hall it happens, yes or yes, for a future demolition. Until it happens, the Iders problem could flare up at any time, as squatters have flouted building lockdown measures in the past, whose owners were evicted in 1991 due to aluminosis problems that years later it was shown that they were not so serious.
More than a dozen communities of owners and numerous companies in the surroundings of Familia Betancourt y Molina avenue They are summoned to protest this Tuesday against the fires, the scandals, the accumulation of garbage, the rats, the insects and the uncivil behavior of some of the residents in the Iders, who «scream, fight and argue at any time or do their needs in the gardens of the avenue in broad daylight”, explains Eduardo Luis. The neighbors want to make it clear that it will be “a peaceful gathering”with which they simply intend to “draw the attention of any public administration that can help solve this serious problem for health, image and coexistence in this city.”
