The Podemos Group in Arrecife has managed to get the City Council plenary session to approve this Tuesday to study recovering the Manrique aesthetic of the Canary Islands Park and that it be renamed César Manrique Park, according to the formation, which has explained that the remodeling project will have to be approved by the César Manrique Foundation.
In the body of his motion, Podemos Arrecife has recalled a writing by Guillermo Tophan published in the Antena weekly in 1970. "The new Municipal Park will occupy an area of 12,000 square meters, being located between the buildings of the Casino Club Náutico and the Arrecife Gran Hotel, bordering the maritime coast. The conception of its structure and ornamentation is the work of César Manrique, who has put all his vast knowledge of creative artist into his work to achieve a recreational urban complex, which is totally apart from the easy and routine line that is a common denominator in most of these public parks, not only in the Canary Islands but also in cities in the Peninsula and abroad", it was stated in it.
"Apart from the trees that are planted, it will have staggered gardens on different height planes, whose flowerbeds carry natural sands of different colors: white, black or red, adorned with rolling stones surrounding them buried vertically. In different places masonry benches will be placed, some of them attached to flowerbeds on the same sidewalk of Avenida del Dr. Rafael González. The whole will be topped in the west by a spacious roundabout where an original luminous fountain will be installed. Broadly speaking, we have described what will be the new and revolutionary Municipal Park of Arrecife, which will undoubtedly constitute an advanced conquest in the modern urban conception of our capital", continued Guillermo Tophan's chronicle.
"PIL and PSOE approved destroying the original park"
However, Podemos has pointed out that, in 2000, "the Government formed by PIL and PSOE approved destroying the original park designed by César Manrique to turn it into an underground parking lot".
"As Topham related, the new Municipal Park was built parallel to the Gran Hotel according to the peculiar aesthetic of César Manrique, giving maximum importance to vegetation and white combined with volcanic rock. And in this way it was enjoyed for decades. But it happened that the Gran Hotel ceased to be a profitable business and ended up closing its doors, remaining in this way for several months until in November 1994 it burned down and after several years it occurred to them to take advantage of the rehabilitation of the building to build a lucrative underground parking lot", he pointed out.
The spokesperson for the purple formation, Leticia Padilla, has pointed out "that since 2001 when the works began, the people of Arrecife have suffered a park that has gone through different phases of abandonment and decrepitude, while the underground business has not stopped throwing succulent dividends to its managers". "It is important to know that the Socialist Party, which today stands as a defender of the work and legacy of César Manrique, was the architect of a decision that decades later we continue to suffer, after closing a pact with Dimas Martín full of ugly suspicions", he added.
"Represents the speculation and corruption he faced"
"The current Canary Islands Park is the symbol of an era that we want to leave behind. A mayoress today accused of various cases of corruption in connivance with a PSOE that did not hesitate to reach all kinds of agreements with Dimas Martín when he was at the height of his political career", Padilla said, recalling that it was "on August 14, 2001, being mayoress Isabel Déniz", when "the municipal government group approved to choose the Promotora Inmobiliaria Parque Islas Canarias, the same company that was in charge of the rehabilitation of the Arrecife Gran Hotel, as a partner to constitute a limited liability company in order to execute the works of the park and underground parking, as well as its subsequent exploitation".
For Podemos, "the mere existence of that park stains the memory of César Manrique". "It represents like no other work the speculation and corruption he faced. Not even in its best moments the aesthetics of the new park resembled in the slightest that of our most emblematic artist", said the councilor Leticia Padilla, who has requested that the creation of a complete remodeling project be studied to adapt the surface of the park to the original Manrique aesthetic, as well as that the change of name of the Canary Islands Park to César Manrique Park be studied. A remodeling that, as agreed, will also have to be approved by the César Manrique Foundation.