Constanza Sanchez
The mayor of Logroño, Conrado Escobar, has stated this Thursday that the city will need to «face great challenges» that were previously «unimaginable» in areas such as health, energy, and climate change, for a future of the Rioja capital that, in his words, «begins today» and «we look at it with great enthusiasm.»
Escobar intervened to conclude the extraordinary session held this morning in the plenary hall of the Logroño City Council, with the sole item on the agenda being the update of Logroño’s Urban Agenda, including the introduction of five new projects, bringing the total to 52 objectives in this document.
As the mayor stated, «it is good news because we will have an updated Urban Agenda for the city,» an update that has been done «almost unanimously,» with a reference to the only negative vote expressed by the Vox Municipal Group.
According to the mayor, the Agenda «is not globalist or backward, it is for Logroño and its residents,» and although he acknowledged the launch of the initiative in the previous term, he regretted that «it was very improvable,» recalling that «we made suggestions that were not taken into account, and then the elections came and what happened, happened.»
Nevertheless, he emphasized that «despite being an improvable Urban Agenda, we believed it deserved the opportunity to incorporate what the people of Logroño wanted for their city, we got to work on it and now we bring it to the plenary because it is a matter that deserves to be discussed in depth and exclusively.»
He expressed that this document «is part of a broader roadmap that now includes this update, which should help strengthen our positions to access European funds,» announcing precisely that «tomorrow a major project reflected in the Agenda will be presented,» also referring to the Logroño 2050 strategy, presented last week.
Escobar also recalled that one of the first documents to be part of the revision of the General Municipal Plan and the circular city strategy will be addressed soon. «But the starting point was this update because Logroño has to face these great challenges that years ago were unimaginable,» he insisted.
Specifically, he referred to health, «which, after experiencing the pandemic, also influences urban life and our urban planning,» mentioning aspects such as Low Emission Zones or housing; energy «looking at what we can do regarding external dependencies»; climate change, «which exists, is a reality, and must be part of our daily lives»; and water, «which should be a priority.»
In this context, where, as he pointed out, «we have to reflect all this in urban planning and do it on a human scale,» he framed the inclusion of the five new projects in the Logroño Urban Agenda, «which reinforce that scale and those priorities that mark the particular seal of this Government.»
He detailed the housing, with a Municipal Plan, «absolutely necessary»; Strategy 1521 «which is ours, not imposed from outside»; the «commitment to bike lanes, with 8 new urban kilometers connecting what already exists, adding and not disrupting coexistence»; Mantible Bridge, «it is a shame that it collapsed, but now the focus is on valuing it, along with its surroundings»; or financing.
All of this, as Escobar defended, «is coherent, legitimate, avoiding extremes, from the political center, incorporating the best of all options.» «We are comfortable in the center. We are not globalists or backward. We do not want tariffs set by imperialist maxims or to regress to the 90s. We look with great enthusiasm at the future of Logroño, a future that begins today,» the mayor concluded.
