That Tías is adrift is a palpable evidence. You only have to take a walk through the town to see the state it is in: sidewalks (where there are any) destroyed and full of gorse, streets and roads unpaved, houses falling apart everywhere and premises offered for rent or sale, which show the agony of the commercial sector.
A dormitory town is a place whose main function is residential, which practically lacks jobs and services, and where the population moves to another city to work, buy, and consume culture and leisure.
Tías has been in a process of constant degradation for more than a decade, and the last government teams of the City Council have either not found out, or have not been able to act.
The population does not stop growing (more than 20,000 inhabitants, of which less than 40% are native), and the culture and material and immaterial heritage are in danger of extinction.
There has not been a serious urban planning, almost all the heritage has been destroyed (due to pure neglect), culture almost does not exist, and the general state of the town of Tías is painful. And we are not going to talk about the thousands of meters of cables that "embellish" the skies of the town, or the great work of civil engineering that has been done on the Camino de Los Lirios or on the central avenue Mayor Florencio Suárez Rodríguez. It makes you want to cry!
Regarding culture, this is the radiography of Tías, according to data from the council in 2017:
BIC (Assets of cultural interest) 0
Cultural infrastructures in operation
(Municipal Theater, Hermitage of San Antonio and 2 libraries) 4
The rest of the infrastructures are abandoned: the teleclubs, the House of Mr. Justo, the Society, the Indieras Hall, the culture building, etc.
And there is even more:
The Municipal School of Music is experiencing its worst moments (the teachers were paid in March 2019 the salary of September 2018). The music band is dismantled.
The hundreds of instruments that had been bought for the music school and the band were never inventoried, and have disappeared (many thousands of euros).
The concert grand piano (approximate price: 20,000?), which is currently in the Salón Indieras, is used by children to take piano lessons, and is very deteriorated.
The third sector (cultural associations and foundations) has either disappeared or has moved to other towns.
Cultural companies are conspicuous by their absence
The cultural program is painful.
The Church of La Candelaria and the cemetery are surrounded by more than 20 lampposts, with a disastrous visual impact and, to top it off, they have put two horrible flowerpots on the facade of the Temple. What a lack of sensitivity and respect!
Other properties of municipal ownership (premises, schools, houses?) are assigned without any criteria, and in some cases the city council does not even have keys to them, and even in some there are private businesses or, in others, people living (with all expenses paid by the citizens of Tías).
The PP and CC tandem is like nitroglycerin: an unstable and very dangerous mixture, which can end up destroying the town of Tías.
Let's hope that May 26 will bring us a great change, because, if the same ones continue, we will only have to thank Telefónica and Unelco for keeping the town united and cohesive with their cables.
Pedro J. Suárez García
Candidate of Somos Lanzarote ? Nueva Canarias to the City Council of Tías
