Neighborhood victory in Orcasitas: Almeida ‘undoes’ the works on the Plaza de Memoria Binculante after the protests

“Almeida’s team brings concrete and cement to a place where there used to be gardens,” the Orcasitas Neighborhood Association denounced last December in the announcement of a neighborhood rally in the aforementioned square to show their dissatisfaction with the work of the municipal technicians. . The neighbors felt deceived and claimed that the works had been carried out “without consulting” the residents who live in front of the square, they told this newspaper at the meeting attended by dozens of residents of the area.

The first information meetings of those responsible for the project with neighbors, the Madrid Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS), were in May. However, the city council informed the Usera district for the first time in 2022 that action would be taken in this environment to improve the accessibility, functionality and mobility of the area. At this year’s meetings, plans were shown that illustrated constructions and a “more accessible space, with new furniture and gardens”, an idea that later appeared to be far from reality.

The project has been partially financed from the State Housing Plan 2018-2021, the result of an agreement between the ministry, the Community and the Madrid City Council, with a total budget of 550,000 euros. A budget for a reform that, for the neighbors, is “meaningless works,” when “for years the maintenance and cleaning of the neighborhood has been forgotten,” one of the neighbors denounced on social networks.

Shortly after work began in the area, at the beginning of July, residents dissatisfied with the lack of communication and participation of the inhabitants of the area, showed their anger through social networks, alleging that no one had notified them about this new “remodeling.” «In a neighborhood where we even made models of our own homes, we chose the tiles of our houses and the names of our streets. What the administration cannot do is come and tear up what is in the square without having explained it first,” denounces Más Madrid councilor Félix López Rey in a video by X.

However, the EMVS indicated that on May 29 a meeting was held in which the project for action in the neighborhood was explained and a plan was given to them, but that at no time did they show disagreement about it. It was not the only time that they communicated the intention to carry out this work to the residents and associations involved. Twenty days before, a meeting had been held with the Poblado Dirigido de Orcasitas association and on July 9, according to the municipal company, the AV Meseta de Orcasitas was informed that the work was starting.

One day after the demonstration, those responsible for these works and neighborhood representatives held a meeting in which the project was explained again and the demands of the residents, who mainly seek the removal of these walls, were heard. Today they already see progress in meeting their demands.

Finally, just as they did at the time with their homes, the neighbors have managed to get the Almeida team to reverse the renovation and remove the concrete walls that had been installed in the heart of Orcasitas. Currently there are already some of these structures demolished, although, according to López Rey, they still have to be removed. “The neighbors ask that the square return to how it was and that the neighborhood does not need more cement, but rather that it needs maintenance,” the councilor insists to ABC.

This square has special meaning for the neighborhood since it remembers the struggle at the end of the 70s of the residents of Orcasitas to be relocated to their neighborhood and their participation in the plans and designs of their own homes.