Palma's mayor-in-waiting, Antoni Noguera, recently made a presentation of what is to become the city's "urban forest". It was quite an impressive presentation, replete with large drawings of what the forest will look like. A media gaggle was all agog listening to Noguera extolling its virtues.
It is an ambitious and laudable project, but there is a snag. More than one in fact. The town hall doesn't own all the land for the forest, such as that occupied by the old El Tirador velodrome. No problem, the town hall will buy it. The cost could be as much as nine million euros.
Has this been budgeted for? Perhaps so. But if one goes back almost a year when the forest was first being talked up, half a million euros had been set aside in the 2016 budget for starting work on the project (which didn't happen) and which included some "rehabilitation" of El Tirador.
There is much publicity ballyhoo for projects at the end of which the odd caveat is sneaked in. Paying for a project will require, variously, European funding, tourist tax revenue funding, Madrid's largesse or - specifically in Palma's case - funding via the law for capital cities, which is provided by the regional government. Palma, thanks in no small part to the fact that President Armengol and the mayor (the current one) don't see eye-to-eye (or this at least is how it seems), has not received anything like what it should have from this funding source.
Still, it is always possible that financing for the forest will be in place. But the forest's presentation was an example of the way in which projects - typically grand schemes as this one will be - are announced with a blaze of glory without the funding i's having been dotted and t's crossed. Consequently, there is either a significant amount of wishful thinking that funding will be available or the project is being announced in the half (or more) expectation that it will fail. Not because the promoter of the project - Palma town hall in the case of the forest - will have failed, but because some other body has not come up with the cash. Political capital can thus be made, e.g. the government isn't being fair with the city's citizens by not forwarding the law for capital cities' investment or by not allocating tourist tax revenue. Alternatively, and more often than not, it will all be Madrid's fault.
Which brings us to the project to redevelop Son Dureta Hospital. With an estimated budget of 120 million euros, it would rank as one of the government's stellar projects, if not its most stellar - a five-star project for attending, justifiably, to the needs of an aging population.
Ever since it closed and Son Espases opened, Son Dureta has been a monument to a total absence of strategic thinking. There was never any plan or any idea as to what to do with it. Therefore, it has been a multiple edifice in search of a project, one that the current government has now alighted upon.
The first announcement regarding its redevelopment was made only a few weeks ago. The other day, the massed ranks of Armengol, Barceló, Santiago (social services) and Gómez (health) were paraded before the media to make another announcement, one which only added flesh to the previous by stating how many places it will have. Otherwise, why were they making the second announcement? Well, given the stellar nature of the project we can probably expect regular bulletins, but underneath all this is there a different agenda?
The point is that, like El Tirador and Palma, the government doesn't actually own the hospital; it is ultimately the property of the national government. While Madrid is unlikely to object to the redevelopment, there is the separate issue as to who is going to pay for it.
In principle, the regional government will pay, and President Armengol said as much earlier this week. But there are currently only one million euros in the 2017 budget for the project, which presumably are destined for preliminary work, such as drawing up the plans, given that any actual demolition or building won't occur until the end of next year at the earliest. It was what Armengol then also said that makes one wonder. She made another demand for improved financing by Madrid for public service infrastructure such as Son Dureta.
By being somewhat vague as to how it will pay for the redevelopment, the Armengol government appears to be leaving the door open to blame Madrid if there are any hitches. The health service budget, insufficient as it is, cannot be touched, so there has to be an investment fund source, and that it is something which Madrid have shown themselves to be reluctant to part with. Is there a half expectation of failure? If so, it won't be the regional government's fault.
Showing posts with label Urban forest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban forest. Show all posts
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Friday, February 17, 2017
Modelling The Green City
Let me say this. One, Palma is given too much attention. Yes, it is the capital, it has around half the population of Mallorca, it is the centre of the commercial and political universe on the island. It still gets a disproportionate level of attention, though. Two, its town hall councillors have an unerring capacity to unleash barrages of statistics designed to doubtless impress the citizens but which instead induce comas of numbed-by-number. Want to know the percentage increase in film shoots for adverts for the past twelve months, the rise in the number of passengers on a particular bus line, the budget elevation for rubbish collection, the percentage of full-time workers in the non-tourism sector in a certain quarter of the year? If you do, then there's a councillor (usually either Joana Maria Adrover or Neus Truyol) who will oblige.
Which isn't to say that Palma councillors are unique in this regard. Or that their utterances are of such a uniquely great abundance in order to ensure attention. As the third government in Mallorca - after the actual government and the one that would like to be, namely, the Council of Mallorca - it has a duty to follow the communication rules of its betters and numb the citizens into servile submission under the sheer weight of percentage points.
The follow-on from all this quantity is the quality. Increases here, rises there, and therefore things are better. More employment, more rubbish being collected, etc. There's nothing wrong with this, but too often the qualitative message is subservient to the quantitative announcement. What people really want to know is how are lives being improved, how is the city being improved. Not by numbers but by physical evidence of action and firm commitments to action that lead to qualitative enhancements.
I come, therefore, to praise the next mayor of Palma, Antoni Noguera. When he first landed the job as one of the plethora of the city's deputy mayors, there was less than clarity as to one of the responsibilities that had been assigned to him. Or rather, that he had assigned to himself. Deputy mayor for the model of the city. What did that mean?
We are now discovering what it means and also what pledges to improve "livability" are to do with. And we need look no further than the scheme for the urban forest to understand where Noguera is coming from. In essence it's about more green space, but it comes with the additional intention of offsetting the impact of rising temperatures by virtue of this very greening. Applause there should be for the scheme. Palma doesn't have enough green space. Providing more is desirable in different ways, not least because of the qualitative value in terms of quality of life.
Noguera has been making other contributions. There is the plan to cut lanes of traffic by two along the Paseo Marítimo. There are further ones in respect of the number of new restaurant and bar licences. In other words, there will be limits, and for once a town hall initiative affecting the city's business has been greeted with seemingly total approval. The thinking is to avoid there being ghettoes of bars and restaurants and little or nothing else. Create a mix of business, and a greater sense of civility is established.
Likewise, and although this doesn't come under Noguera, there are the changes to the use of the public way, the most controversial aspect of which has to do with terraces. It can seem as if certain councillors have it in for terraces (and they may well do), but the principle isn't wrong in wishing to create more space for people just to walk. In a sense, this is similar thinking to the urban forest and to the opening-up of the Paseo Marítimo by creating a real link between the urbanised city and its sea: the perception and reality of more space, of less clutter, of greater quality.
But is Noguera getting ahead of himself? The plan for the forest includes the velodrome and the Es Fortí military club. The town hall says it will expropriate the former. A desire to take Es Fortí out of private hands might prove more problematic. While one applauds what he wishes to create, the actual plan for the forest is still no more than a draft. Yet he says that it will be completed, along with the planting of thousands of trees along the Riera torrent, by the time the current administration finishes.
Has he been spinning as he moves towards the time when he succeeds José Hila as mayor, promoting his projects as means of guaranteeing - were there to be any doubts - this succession? One hopes not. His is a worthwhile project. Palma might just attract ever more attention, and in this instance it would be highly merited.
Which isn't to say that Palma councillors are unique in this regard. Or that their utterances are of such a uniquely great abundance in order to ensure attention. As the third government in Mallorca - after the actual government and the one that would like to be, namely, the Council of Mallorca - it has a duty to follow the communication rules of its betters and numb the citizens into servile submission under the sheer weight of percentage points.
The follow-on from all this quantity is the quality. Increases here, rises there, and therefore things are better. More employment, more rubbish being collected, etc. There's nothing wrong with this, but too often the qualitative message is subservient to the quantitative announcement. What people really want to know is how are lives being improved, how is the city being improved. Not by numbers but by physical evidence of action and firm commitments to action that lead to qualitative enhancements.
I come, therefore, to praise the next mayor of Palma, Antoni Noguera. When he first landed the job as one of the plethora of the city's deputy mayors, there was less than clarity as to one of the responsibilities that had been assigned to him. Or rather, that he had assigned to himself. Deputy mayor for the model of the city. What did that mean?
We are now discovering what it means and also what pledges to improve "livability" are to do with. And we need look no further than the scheme for the urban forest to understand where Noguera is coming from. In essence it's about more green space, but it comes with the additional intention of offsetting the impact of rising temperatures by virtue of this very greening. Applause there should be for the scheme. Palma doesn't have enough green space. Providing more is desirable in different ways, not least because of the qualitative value in terms of quality of life.
Noguera has been making other contributions. There is the plan to cut lanes of traffic by two along the Paseo Marítimo. There are further ones in respect of the number of new restaurant and bar licences. In other words, there will be limits, and for once a town hall initiative affecting the city's business has been greeted with seemingly total approval. The thinking is to avoid there being ghettoes of bars and restaurants and little or nothing else. Create a mix of business, and a greater sense of civility is established.
Likewise, and although this doesn't come under Noguera, there are the changes to the use of the public way, the most controversial aspect of which has to do with terraces. It can seem as if certain councillors have it in for terraces (and they may well do), but the principle isn't wrong in wishing to create more space for people just to walk. In a sense, this is similar thinking to the urban forest and to the opening-up of the Paseo Marítimo by creating a real link between the urbanised city and its sea: the perception and reality of more space, of less clutter, of greater quality.
But is Noguera getting ahead of himself? The plan for the forest includes the velodrome and the Es Fortí military club. The town hall says it will expropriate the former. A desire to take Es Fortí out of private hands might prove more problematic. While one applauds what he wishes to create, the actual plan for the forest is still no more than a draft. Yet he says that it will be completed, along with the planting of thousands of trees along the Riera torrent, by the time the current administration finishes.
Has he been spinning as he moves towards the time when he succeeds José Hila as mayor, promoting his projects as means of guaranteeing - were there to be any doubts - this succession? One hopes not. His is a worthwhile project. Palma might just attract ever more attention, and in this instance it would be highly merited.
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