The surface parking problem in Santa Cruz is exacerbated in areas such as the Uruguay and Salamanca neighborhoods, the latter area in which residents and businesses report that in the last year they have been losing the few street parking spaces they have and that from the Association of Neighbors of La Arboleda they estimate a hundred.
The residents have raised their voices again after this week the ban on parking on one of the sides of Fernando Primo de Rivera street has been reinforced, because, as indicated by the Santa Cruz City Council, it was already prohibited, but kept parking due to lack of space. The City Council has proceeded to paint a yellow stripe on the right side of the ascending direction and has reinforced the no parking signs.
“For more than a year, merchants and neighbors have been complaining that there is nowhere to park in Uruguay-Salamanca. It is something that we denounce both to the parties that visited us in the recent electoral campaign and to the media, and we have not received a response to our demands”, they explain from La Arboleda, adding that the most objectionable aspect of this elimination of positions is They have not given alternatives.
“They have not built new car parks,” the residents assert, who even point out that they are studying “the start of mobilizations” to stop “a situation that harms citizens and many older people who live in houses on land and do not have a garage.”
From the Santa Cruz City Council they explain that the reinforcement of the parking ban on Fernando Primo de Rivera street, as in four other streets in the neighborhood, is due to complaints about the lack of accessibility and security issues. And it is that, says the City Council, many complaints have been received from people who cannot pass on the sidewalks because many cars end up encroaching on part of them. Access to garages is also impeded by not having the ability to maneuver at the entrance or exit when having cars parked in front. Added to all this is the need for fire trucks or ambulances to enter these streets crowded with cars on one side and others. These are the main arguments collected in the Mobility report to proceed with the elimination of car parks.
From La Arboleda they insist that “if parking lots are eliminated from four streets, alternatives must be offered to the residents. For example, an underground parking lot in Plaza Iglesia Fátima, as we have demanded on several occasions”. “Privileged neighbors who have garages complain, but humble families are left without parking,” they add from the association, which insists that “they solve one problem and create another.
Many of those old houses are for older people and they don’t know where they will park”. From the City Council they confirm that in the next few days a meeting will be held between the Mobility area and the neighbors to explain the situation that has led to the removal of parking lots.
