“This neighborhood is our home”

The plan presented by Hospitalet Town Hall Includes a list with 18 actions, from training in new technologies to cognitive stimulation elderly peoplepassing through social gardens and a project of historical memoryto name a few.

THE NEWSPAPER spoke to four readers familiar with the idiosyncrasies of Florida, your current situation and your needs, to comment on this ambitious Plan with multiple objectives. “The list will seem fine to me as long as it becomes reality and they are interested in publicizing the projects of neighborhood entity, that in the end it is they who are day to day with their people ”, the neighbor points out first Monica Guainez

At 33, Gañez fights from anonymity against inequality in this neighborhood considered very complex. “I was born, raised and still live in Florida,” This young graduate in Audiovisual Communication and currently graduating in Social Education proudly assures us.

This young woman thinks it is very good that they invest Support spaces for education and training from 0 to 3 years, because “all that is to give tools and resources to improve the bond between families and children at that age is important”. In these spaces, he adds, “families interact and this also favors social cohesion”.

Gáñez regrets “the prejudices of the elderly and the distrust of the young” because the ideal, he argues, would be Let us exchange points of view. “People who have lived in the neighborhood for a long time have seen how conflicts between different cultures have increased over the years. They ask for more police, but they act like ‘extinguish the fires’ of conflicts it is not working on the root problems”, points out the educator.

Empathy and equipment for young people

Beyond the rapper Morad, a very controversial local figure who leaves no one indifferent Florida, look for the youth of the neighborhood referents. Like Gañez, who has always been very clear about this I wanted to “help others” even if she doesn’t consider such a thing: “I can’t be a reference when my primary needs have always been covered, and they have allowed me to study accompanied by people who have never let me down. I feel privileged in many ways”.

“What we have to do as educators is be very empathetic, help them find what motivates them, have a illusion now,” assures this neighbor of Floridawho defends that young people need spaces for “your privacy and create your identity”, something complicated in the context of poor housing. Hence, the investment in a new equipment for teenagers and young people. “We should take them more into consideration, listen to them, because in the end they are our future”.

another reader, Ivan Picazzo, 44 years old, agrees in emphasizing the lack of spaces for young people and celebrates that the creation of a sidecar has been envisaged with projects aimed at the youngest and initiatives such as the ‘taste of crafts’ (commercial laboratories).

“Currently there are many patera floors and the children don’t have a room of their own, they have nowhere to study or draw, or do anything creative, e they end up on the street, where nothing good is learned”, says this former neighbor with a 16-year-old son. “This problem may get worse because rents have gone up and there’s more need,” he adds, “some families may now be considering subletting a room for the first time.”

After watching episodes of “violence in its purest form” Picazo decided to leave Florida last October. “In front of the house I saw how a man was attacked with a katana, how a boy was stabbed to take away his moped… We also saw guns,” says this former neighbor, electrical engineer and audiovisual designer now living in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia.

“I’ve lived there for about eight years, but I’ve been visiting Florida since I was little because of my grandmother. I remember playing with my cousins ​​in the Plaza de la Llibertat, when in the 80s the custom of making vermouth in the bars and cellars of a lifetime had taken root”, remember with nostalgia. All in all, Picazo welcomes the AMB’s investment in his old neighborhood, with which he maintains a very close relationship. His whole family lives there.

“There are no bad people here”

Unlike Picasso, Francisco Solias he never thought about moving from the neighborhood where he was born 60 years ago. “Here I have most of my friends, I have to buy the most basic things… Everyone treats me well here, there are no bad people”, says a reader who during the conversation prefers to emphasize accessibility and mobility in general and not so much in the safety of citizens.

“I suppose the mayor is doing what he can, but all this investment won’t hurt, especially for enhance the public space. Because in general it is accessible, but can be improved», explains the reader, who walks with the help of a walker.

For Solías it is urgent to define a mobility plan, although I don’t say it exactly in those terms. “In my street, the avenue miraflorthere are traffic jams every day, you find cars parked at pedestrian crossings and it is easy to find motorcycles circulating on the sidewalk”, lists a neighbor who believes that the historical problem of the neighborhood began as a sort of dormitory city from the periphery

“Many current problems are related to the very origin of the neighborhood, as it was used to accumulate people who didn’t fit into the city of Barcelona. Here because, when they say that there are few policemen, I prefer to say that there are many people”, This reader points out the high population density of the hospital districts, which guarantees a very peaceful stroll through the streets of La Florida.

Multicultural encounters and civilizations

Many people and very different. Florida is a melting pot of cultures, as another newspaper reader points out, Asensio Montoya, 65 years old, which puts civilization and co-responsibility at the centre. “I think it is very necessary to create equipment like ‘youth houses’ and civic centres Generate meeting points between people of different origins, organizing activities to share experiences and gastronomy, for example”, says this architect who has been a neighbor since he was 4 years old.

According to Montoya’s diagnosis, some civic campaign: “It’s important to realize that the neighborhood is our homethat we all have to keep it in good condition”. However, the situation in the neighborhood is not new, continues the neighbor, because with the immigration of the 60s and 70swith the arrival of people from other parts of Spain, mainly from Andalusia and Extremadurafriction also occurred.

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“Those people didn’t feel that the neighborhood belonged to everyone, it felt like it belonged to no one. It was a jungle, but luckily it got better over time. Now is the time to do the same,” recalls an optimistic, trusting Montoya the potential of a diverse and plural neighborhood.

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