The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, and the Councilor for Public Services, Carlos Tarife, presented yesterday the new seven large playgrounds that the city will have throughout 2023. These spaces are added to the 80 already built since 2019 by the capital city council, with an investment that exceeds five million euros, which comes to endorse Santa Cruz as a child-friendly city, they highlighted.
Three of these new large playgrounds will be located in the Ofra-Costa Sur district, specifically, in the neighborhoods of Chimisay, Tío Pino and Cuchillitos de Tristán. While two will be in Salud-La Salle, in Cuatro Torres and Cuesta Piedra, specifically in Mama Loli square; and two in the Southwest, located in La Cruz and Tenoya squares, both in Sobradillo. Of these seven parks, five are already in the bidding phase, while there are only two pending bidding, which are those of Plaza La Cruz and Mamá Loli, with a total cost, among the seven, of around 2.5 million.
The mayor explained that “one of the lines of work that we have defended in this mandate is to reform or create new children’s spaces in the city”, and affirmed that “they are the result of a process of listening to citizens, who in visits and tours of the neighborhoods have raised their needs in this regard”. Bermúdez pointed out that during the current mandate “all the districts have been represented” and stressed that “this is the result of the efforts of the workers in the Public Services area, together with coordination with the districts and other municipal areas, therefore that an execution period of around five months is foreseen”.
Carlos Tarife, for his part, indicated that “the Department of Public Services is continuously working on maintenance, the provision of new playgrounds and the improvement of existing ones.” To which he added that “within our commitment to full accessibility, the City Council is providing each of the five districts with playgrounds with play spaces that incorporate accessible elements that allow the interaction of all children.” “These types of parks must be accessible and have a series of key characteristics so that any child can play, interact and have a good time,” he pointed out.
Criticism of the PSOE
Meanwhile, the PSOE candidate for mayor of Santa Cruz, Patricia Hernández, rejected the mayor’s statements, “appropriating the announced playground projects” and accused the councilor of lying about the origins of the project and its authorship. “The step taken today, of resubmitting a project already approved by me in July 2020, seems ridiculous to us,” said Hernández. “Bermúdez seems to trust that people have a bad memory, but they forget that everything is posted on the internet and all you have to do is do a Google search to find out that these 7 parks were presented, along with 14 others, on July 10. 2020 in the same press room,” he said.
