The prolonged stagnation in which the city of Arrecife finds itself must end. This continuous state of affairs is unsustainable. The perpetual apathy, installed in everyone's living room, hinders the progress of a society in Arrecife that is suffering firsthand the consequences of municipal inefficiency, whose process seems to be the only thing that has been moving invariably for at least the last twelve years. In this context, a city council dedicated exclusively to the management of routine is also an atrophied administration; if we also add the lack of technical resources and the political inability to get it out of the quagmire, we are left with an ankylosed local entity.
The management of routine is closely linked to an immobilizing factor: Mediocrity. Reflecting on this aspect serves as an exercise to begin to understand the incongruous actions, the absurd decisions and the excesses that emanate, with worrying regularity, from the institution closest to the people. Mediocrity is the form that the capital's administration has adopted to manage the municipality. Not going beyond what is strictly necessary; not asking questions or asking them, since that implies looking for solutions. However, this relaxation has dire consequences for citizens: The case of Tana Hernández comes to mind, the kid from Valterra who spent six years lying in a bed without being able to leave his home, the families of the houses in Titerroy or the recent demolitions of two buildings with heritage values in the middle of Calle Real, to give different but representative examples.
Another factor that prevents loosening the mooring of municipal inefficiency is the lack of a roadmap. There is not even an idea of a city, something so basic and necessary to begin the reconstruction. Knowing which port to go to and what the route should be are essential guidelines to avoid getting lost in the sea of incoherence. In the last seventeen months they have also avoided taking them into account. We have gone from being adrift, during the Administration of Eva de Anta, to capsizing due to the hysterical shaking of the Administration of Astrid Pérez, more concerned with representing busy choreographies in a grotesque fiction of movement. In any case, the feeling that no one is at the helm is real. Without a clear direction, with little willingness to listen to proposals and with arrogance as a flag, the arrival at a safe harbor seems complicated, especially because the ship is turning in circles on itself.
A troubled river is a fisherman's gain. This popular saying could conceptually and graphically summarize what, in my opinion, is happening in Arrecife. There is a sector of society, of social agents rather, who do not want the city of Arrecife to be organized, developed and become one of the main capitals of these island lands. These social agents are not interested in order, they are more comfortable in chaos. It is easier to take advantage of confusion than to look for it within a community framework of benefits. Going through the same responsibilities and duties as any son of a neighbor is a nuisance for them; let the fools who pay taxes comply with the rules. If the predisposition had been different and the common interests, Arrecife would have had a General Urban Planning Plan for a long time instead of a string of ad hoc partial modifications.
The construction of the city is a collective task. Allowing Arrecife to move forward is to initiate a process of understanding and basic consensus among all social sectors and mainly among the different political parties. Allowing Arrecife to move forward means starting by putting the house in order, cleaning up a corrupt local administration. Moving forward in a joint project, of all and for all, leaving behind the short-termism of immediate benefit and indecent electoralism. In the advance it is not possible to continue using the old formulas that have left us in the well, it is about finding the way through brave, committed and supportive proposals with the common cause. It is essential to understand that on the ruins of its identity it is impossible to build a city that advances, that cutting the roots of its singularity trivializes it and condemns it to oblivion. Let Arrecife advance, you will win and we will all win.
Leandro Delgado Zalazar, councilor for Lanzarote en Pie in the Arrecife City Council.
