Leading a healthy life is a contemporary desire to which most of the population aspires. And the city - the shape of its streets, the services it is capable of providing, the air that is breathed in it, the landscape that is enjoyed - is one more part of the healthy system. A modern city must offer solutions for the health of its inhabitants, because if it does not, it is doomed to failure.
It is known that the Canary Islands, and Lanzarote is no exception, has a serious health problem. Diabetes and coronary diseases maintain a higher prevalence than in the rest of the state. Only a few months ago, the newspaper El País opened its society pages with an article entitled "Why does the heart of the Canaries break four years earlier?". Among the causes contributed by specialists were obesity, inequality and sedentary lifestyle. If Arrecife seeks to transform itself into the city with the best quality of life in the Canary Islands, there are three enemies to defeat. Of course, sport and physical activity are not the only solution, and phenomena such as inequality require very urgent shock measures in the capital, but it seems equally clear that sports practice and leading an active life are actions that combat this three-headed hydra.
Arrecife has one of the most important sports bases in the Canary Islands. Its almost 60 sports clubs and the more than 3,000 children who participate every afternoon in the practice of its many disciplines, make us a reference in the Islands. Even more so if we approach the tradition of our clubs in the different disciplines and modalities: Arrecife has, also in sports, a history full of successes and joys.
This exemplary trajectory is just one more reason why sport cannot be abandoned to its fate due to the lack of interest of the municipal government, due to the detachment in the fulfillment of the economic commitments established with the clubs, due to the deficit state of the sports facilities or due to the systematic suspension of events that, most of the time, have been prepared with great enthusiasm by the athletes themselves. A climate of unease and abandonment similar to that suffered by the rest of the city is beginning to be implanted in sports Arrecife. For example, the fact that those posters that at the beginning of the legislature read "Arrecife with sport" are still maintained in the sports facilities seems like a bad joke.
We must build a structure in which our clubs and schools are the main engine of sports practice, as they are an ideal means for the construction of a healthier, more integrated and participatory society. The administration must facilitate as much as possible the work of this associative fabric and enable the best possible conditions for the development of a management that, in most cases, is carried out selflessly. This idea must translate into modern sports facilities managed with efficiency and effectiveness, in the agile fulfillment of economic commitments and in institutional support for new projects that respond to the general interest. These should be the minimum foundations for sport in Arrecife to be balanced with the importance of its athletes and the sports family.
It is time to create illusions, to build, to lay the foundations to improve things and to encourage the groups and athletes of Arrecife to work together to achieve, among all, the space we deserve. And we believe that in this effort grassroots sport must be the center of public action. A well-cared base, with adequate funding and with the infrastructures of the capital that we want to be. We must also provide ourselves with a management and subsidy system placed at the service of citizens and not at the service of the administration itself. Simplicity and clarity are not at odds with efficiency, on the contrary, they are allies of a way of doing things that solves problems and guarantees rights and transparency. The public contribution to clubs and entities must be clearly established at the beginning of the season and based on the projects and merits of the clubs that each afternoon contribute to the education of children and young people. This idea of simplified management should be a municipal priority. Let's make bureaucracy stop being the excuse to prevent doing things, let's make it become an agile and simple system, within everyone's reach.
Lanzarote is a world reference for sport, with events of great international repercussion. Arrecife must regain leadership in this field and return to sponsoring activities, teams and events. A sports Arrecife that positions itself as an island, national and even international reference. We have the people, we have the climate and part of the facilities that are needed to make this proposal a reality. We need that enthusiasm to spread to the institution and to those who have the responsibility to manage.
We started talking about healthy living and we have talked about sport. But, as we know, healthy is much more than competition. Healthy is a better, kinder, more conducive and more active way of living. Therefore, in addition to regulated and competitive sport, we must create among all the means and infrastructures that invite the free and pleasant practice of healthy ways of living. We must bet on enabling spaces that facilitate outdoor activity. Open and public facilities for walking, running, cycling, skating. Infrastructures that integrate the beautiful landscape of the city, that incorporate the most beautiful marina of the Islands, that add trees, shade and soils conducive to exercise, that reunify the city weaving a single network with all the neighborhoods. Regardless of age, sex, physical condition... A city in which you want to be, in which you want to live, in which you want to stay active. Walks, training circuits, multipurpose courts, outdoor gyms, playgrounds, skatepark, bike lanes, etc. must flood Arrecife. Let's make the capital the first fully cyclable city in the Canary Islands, the first city that moves mostly by bicycle.
Let's lanzarotize Arrecife! Let's recover sport as a source of well-being for the Arrecifeños!
By Echedey Eugenio, Candidate of Coalición Canaria to the Mayoralty of Arrecife
