Núria Marín, mayor of L’Hospitalet: “We could give a master’s degree in ‘superilles’: Bellvitge is a model”

Take stock of this first year of the city pact. Very positive. We have launched all the actions, and 29% are already completed. We made a pact that was very ambitious, although it may have modifications or new features. In a way it is what we will do this Saturday. We will review where we came from, where we are and where we want to continue. The city pact has been a good instrument of consensus, agreement, and negotiation.

Has it taken a pandemic to reach this type of pact? Has someone taken off the hook? No one has. Neither entities nor political parties. And we have always opted for this system. Maybe not at this level, but we had reached a pact for education or health. Also for the burial of train tracks. This formulation of agreement on the priority has worked for us with the social agents, with the entities, and even with the municipal groups or political parties.

In local administrations, in city models, should it be easier to specify them? It should be the norm in politics. We do not live in Wonderland, but on the really important and far-reaching issues, we should put the general interest first and not the partisan. And I speak of my experience in L’Hospitalet, an important city, but also in the Provincial Council, where we have reached this agreement in the budget. The government that I preside does not have an absolute majority but we have to dialogue and discuss to reach a pact and consensus. And it would be good if in this country it was not the exception, but the most common model.

How has the L’Hospitalet economy experienced the pandemic? We are not an island in the ocean, because we are part of a metropolitan reality. There have been obvious effects on our businesses, our companies, our industry & mldr; And although some have not survived, in general the local commerce has held up reasonably well. We also have an important business tourism, closely related to the Fair, and that sector has also suffered. But for a few months, since it began to open with a certain normality, businesses are working, although we are aware that we have to take care of small businesses. For example, with Christmas performances.

L’Hospitalet has 85% of the population vaccinated, five points above the Spanish average. It is to be satisfied, but we will campaign for that 15% that is missing. It is key to be aware that vaccination protects individually, but also communally in family, study or work settings.

Who will they direct this campaign to, the deniers? We do not have too extensive detected movements in terms of denialism. And yes in the perhaps younger strip. We have asked the Generalitat to carry out a more specific campaign in high schools or among young people. But we are going to do ours from the town hall, not to alert the population, but to raise awareness.

Looking ahead, how will Next Generation funds impact the city? We have made seven large packages of projects, already with requests regarding mobility issues to improve our environments and also transport. We have a city that in general is well connected with public transport. The number of metro stations per capita is very high: 17 stops.

Mobility and climate change are two sides of a coin. We have to go to the new mobility, fundamentally with the use of the bicycle. We are making an increase there. At the end of the term we will reach about 50 km of bike lane. The elevation changes, especially in the north, do not help. We have to work on these roads to give maximum security to those who want to use a bike or other means of transport such as scooters. And also to further implement the bike culture.

How do you see the phenomenon of the ‘superilles’ of Barcelona? I respect all positions, but we could give a master of ‘superilles’. Bellvitge is a model: spaces without car circulation, free for neighbors, the car is very limited in few streets of the neighborhood … Another example is the pedestrian street of Progreso, in Collblanc. Or the case of the Rambla, where only cross traffic is allowed.

They have just presented the L’Hospitalet 6.0 project, a bet against the digital divide. That’s how it is. In the hard days of the pandemic, we saw young people and children with digital skills, but who had no connectivity at home or a computer. We had to buy tablets for elementary schools and facilitate connections. Older people also did not know how to use technology for video conferencing. The gap is generational or economic. And we must also add the productive fabric, because there are businesses that have not been able to innovate or catch up.

How will such an ambitious project start walking? We are not going to do it alone. We have to generate synergies and alliances. We have done it with GSMA, the company that organizes Mobile, and also with the Ministry of Industry. The project needs a space and it already has it on the second floor of the Florida Market. We want the neighborhood to be a benchmark and not for more conflictive issues. Just as you go to the Gornal to the municipal music school, you will have to go to the market for digital issues.

He has alluded to those conflictive situations in Florida. We cannot ignore that there is a problem of coexistence, not of security, with the issue of noise and disturbing the rest of the neighbors. It is a joint work between administrations in an intelligent way, with political formations, entities and neighborhood associations. It is clear that the security forces must also be there. We cannot act alone with civic agents, mediators and educators.

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Has there been an improvement in police resources? We have increased the staff of the Urban Guard by almost 70 people, and we have incorporated more resources. But we need the Mossos to increase their endowment. They have not increased their numbers, on the contrary. We were one of the first places where they were deployed, but this city does not have much to do with the one of 2003. Neither Fira existed nor the events that we have now. We did not have such a diverse city, so complex in the sociocultural aspect. It must be assessed when prioritizing the police force in the territory. This has been put forward to the last ‘councilors’ of the Interior and recently to the Aragonese ‘president’.