It saddens me to see how the idea of community seems to be on the verge of extinction in favor of a selfish and dangerous individualism for the very concept of democracy.
I live on the outskirts of my city, in a depersonalized place where I don’t belong and where I often feel alone. I have to take the commuter train to get around and when I need to walk my only option is to walk around an open field.
I came here because it was cheap, because I belong to that generation that suffered a ruthless economic crisis, that generation that when it finished studying and had to start living, to become independent, to undertake personal and professional life projects, came face to face with a reality that denied him any possibility of a future.
Many emigrated, others of us stayed here surviving by doing a chain of rubbish jobs, enduring that they would not register us or that they would force us to become falsely self-employed. But it is what there was.
I came here, I said, because while rents were going up our salaries were going down, and even so, in those years there was still a rental offer in the city. One could see several homes, have time to decide, even chat with the owners and reach agreements. Yes, reach agreements!
Am I talking about the Pleistocene? No, I’m talking about a little more than a decade ago, before the massive and uncontrolled tourist rental boom invaded the cities, before large companies bought entire blocks of housing to expel the neighbors and replace the population with tourists from passed. Before a fundamental right included in the Constitution such as the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing became the business of a few.
And, with the neighbors, the neighborhood businesses were also disappearing: bakeries, fruit shops, bookstores, hardware stores, workshops, markets… and with them, community support networks, social ties and meaning. of belonging.
From this suburban apartment where I am still, already with a good job but equally suffocated by a rent that has increased by 20% in the last two years and to which I allocate more than 60% of my salary, my blood boils. seeing the inaction of the mayors, the regional presidents and the central government in the face of the greatest crisis that we are experiencing in this country
Architect Itziar González has studied how this phenomenon affects our physical and mental health. “Cities were designed to give you a home, intimacy, and a place of relationship. The commercialization of cities not only robs us of our home, but also of those spaces for the community. Prioritizing consumption and profit over human activities has an impact on our health and quality of life.”
It saddens me to see how the idea of community seems to be on the verge of extinction in favor of a selfish individualism that is dangerous for the very concept of democracy.
But I will not appeal to common sense, I am already cured of fears. I will appeal to the responsibility and obligation of our rulers to comply with article 47 of the Spanish Constitution: “All Spaniards have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing. The public powers will promote the necessary conditions and establish the pertinent rules to make this right effective, regulating the use of land in accordance with the general interest to prevent speculation.
From here, from this suburban apartment where I am still, already with a good job but just as suffocated by a rent that has increased by 20% in the last two years and to which I allocate more than 60% of my salary, I It boils your blood to see the inaction of the mayors, the regional presidents and the central government in the face of the greatest crisis that we are experiencing in this country.
I can imagine the pressures and the difficulty, I really can, but I’ll tell you something, it’s time to be brave, it’s now or never, because a new 15M is coming up and if you want to know how it ends, all you have to do is look around. seen a few years ago.
And please, please, stop reducing this to a young people’s problem, stop putting useless patches. Listen to the tenant unions, listen to the people and remember this generation over 40 who can’t take it anymore.
#commercialization #cities
