Aurelio Fleitas has lived in El Toscal all his life. His cerebral palsy did not prevent him from studying, going to university and becoming a civil servant. Nothing has stopped him in his life, not even the wheelchair that has helped him get around for years. The only thing that puts a brake on his autonomy is the lack of accessibility in his immediate environment. That El Toscal has a serious mobility and accessibility problem is not new, but that Aurelio has been waiting since 2017 for a lowering of the sidewalk that will make it easier for him to enter and exit his house, on Santiago street, is totally unacceptable. . “Since 2017 we have been battling with different services and we have not received an answer,” laments Aurelio’s sister, Margarita, who recounts with contained indignation how her brother “has overturned” on several occasions at the corner of Santiago with San Antonio street, because It is the only point where the sidewalk has a recess that allows you to put your chair on the path that will take you home.
DIARIO DE AVISOS witnessed how Aurelio leaves his house with help, something he did not need until recently, but a recent operation, and falls with the chair, have led him to make the decision to take company for a while.
Once on the road, because the width of the sidewalks makes it impossible for him to go on them, he drives as if it were another vehicle, “risking the Local Police ticketing him, because he can’t go on the road,” explains Margarita. , who details that “only La Rosa street and Méndez Núñez street have recesses in the pedestrian crossings, and they are wide enough for it to circulate, but the block that is in the middle does not have any recesses.” “My brother has to go through the middle of the highway to get to La Rosa or to Méndez Núñez, he has no choice,” she adds.
Aurelio arrives at La Rosa and proceeds along the road, while his sister indicates how the different obstacles on the sidewalk prevent him from going through them. She points out a motorcycle that invades with its chassis part of the widest sidewalk, or how the traffic signal poles, or the car mirrors in the narrowest parts, turn Aurelio’s mobility into an odyssey.
Margarita indicates that in 2017 they went to the Urban Planning Department and “there they told us that this was carried by Traffic, and there we went. We submitted the request for the pedestrian crossing and the reduction, and more than a year later they told us that they could not do anything, because El Toscal did not meet the necessary characteristics for that action, that the sidewalks were narrow, the streets were steep and that we had to wait for the El Toscal Plan, and while my brother only has one access on the corner of San Antonio”.
“The last promise was in November -continues Margarita-, when the Councilor for Mobility (Evelyn Alonso) came to see us and see in person the difficulties my brother is having. They told us that in four months we would have the project. Six months have passed and we don’t know anything.”
Aurelio intervenes to add that, in addition to telling them that they would authorize the action and pass the file on to Public Services for them to act, the mayor promised to make a small urgent action so that he could safely get off the sidewalk next to his house.
Until that visit, “the excuse they gave us was that the El Toscal Special Plan was not approved, but it already is, and my brother doesn’t deserve any more waiting, especially now that the councilors are changing again after the elections, and We are very afraid that we will have to start the journey through all the services all over again,” criticizes Margarita, who assures that the lack of coordination between departments has forced her to have to resend the letters on more than one occasion, because from one area to another responses are lost.
single recess
Aurelio’s wheelchair turns again towards San Martín to approach the recess, the only one around his house, at the intersection with Santiago. There he began the most risky operation, and which has led him to capsize on more than one occasion, having to be rescued by the neighbors. In a space of little more than a meter, Aurelio must raise his chair to the sidewalk, turn it and place it in the direction of his house. A maneuver that takes several minutes and in which the wheels of his chair come off the ground on several occasions.
Once on the sidewalk, start the return home. “If you meet another person who is also in a wheelchair, like your neighbor, or with a baby carriage, or a person on crutches, the question is who turns around, because both do not fit”, Margarita details.
Aurelio points out that the last movement they have made has been to request a meeting with the mayor (José Manuel Bermúdez), but it has not been possible. “They have referred us to another service again,” he concludes resignedly.
From the Santa Cruz City Council, the Accessibility area, to which the Mobility report has not yet reached, indicates that the solution to El Toscal in general is complicated and that, although it is difficult to explain, solving this type of problems is much more complex than a recess. “In this case, with the sidewalks so narrow, it is indeed necessary to build a raised pedestrian crossing, which allows mobility without having to get off the sidewalk,” explains the councilor for the area, Javier Rivero. In addition, he points out that “we have begun to carry out personalized accessible itineraries in the city, with people who ask us to adapt their environment.” For this reason, he comments, “Aurelio’s case would be susceptible to doing this study to adapt an itinerary to his conditions.”
And it is that the work in question supposes, indicates the edile, not only that a pedestrian crossing be made, but it must also be accompanied by a pluvial system that collects rainwater, since, since the street is on a slope, a water accumulation problem could be generated. “It is necessary to draft a project from the Public Services area, which would be in charge of executing it,” adds Rivero.
From Public Services, Carlos Tarife, also a councilor for the Salud-La Salle District, points out that, as soon as he has the Mobility report justifying the need for the pedestrian crossing that does not exist now, the work can be carried out with the maintenance company .
“If my brother falls and a misfortune happens, who do we blame?”
The El Toscal Special Plan came into force last February. Just yesterday, the BOE published the last administrative steps, with the report of the allegations that had been admitted and rejected. An approval that for the Fleitas family does not have special significance, because “we have been making promises about El Toscal for 40 years, and every time a new government arrives, they change what they want to do, and there is no way for them to undertake the changes that are necessary ”, criticizes Margarita. “Now it has been approved, but there is a lack of money, the expropriations, the construction of car parks, but while all this arrives, we cannot sit idly by. If my brother falls and a misfortune happens, who do we blame?” reflects Aurelio’s sister, while he has to be helped to get back into her house.
Aurelio Fleitas on the sidewalk that leads to his house on Santiago street. / Fran Pallero
Aurelio Fleitas on the sidewalk that leads to his house on Santiago street. / Fran Pallero
Aurelio Fleitas on the sidewalk that leads to his house on Santiago street. / Fran Pallero
Aurelio Fleitas on the sidewalk that leads to his house on Santiago street. / Fran Pallero
Aurelio Fleitas on the sidewalk that leads to his house on Santiago street. / Fran Pallero
