At the Fahrenheit 451 bookstore, one of the iconic places of the Carolinas Bajas, and the cafeteria, which has become the symbol of the changes this neighborhood has experienced, I meet with three neighbors who have kept their beautiful dynamism alive until today. It has become a symbol of the new neighborhood movement in Alicante. But the real is the neighborhood that builds alternatives, from the determined neighborhood movement, which is with the people and does not bend to be simple communities of municipal administrators, struggling against difficulties and lack of support to revive one of the most important neighborhoods in the city. abandoned for years.
Hours surround you on a rainy afternoon in Alicante, on a stretcher and over a coffee, to chat about a quarrelsome neighborhood of the city, surrounded by good books, unaware of time, listening, learning and not knowing how. There are many people working on the street to promote innovative social and neighborhood dynamics that do not succumb to the fact that this city is consumed by laziness, and are committed to revitalizing citizens on the street.
With passion and enthusiasm, Sento Oncina, Anne Ponsart Y Fernando Paton They explain to me the whole web of activities that take place in this neighborhood, the many unique initiatives that reclaim forgotten spaces, try to revitalize abandoned places, build coexistence, support the most vulnerable, promote cultural, sports proposals. , leisure, meeting, coexistence and celebration before the desert suffer from City Council councils and political leaders. There are so many activities that they explain that it is difficult for me to write them in order in my notebook, because they do not attach importance to this citizen vitality, all at once, not realizing the energy that it represents. neighborhood associations are minimal.
Since 2015, the Carolinas Bajas neighborhood has been home to one of the most valuable neighborhood initiatives of a social nature.Information point and termination of social rightsEvery Wednesday morning, on the shores of Plaça de Les Palmeretes, he advises, manages, processes and accompanies dozens of people who go there with their problems and social needs, especially in the Valencian Inclusion Income (RVI) region, in the State. Minimum Placement Income (RMI) and other benefits administered by municipal social services. Seven specialists affiliated with this Information Point serve approximately twenty people every Wednesday, up to sixty on certain days. Others wait from the early hours of the morning to draw attention to the fact that he does not enter the social centers. So much so that they often receive referrals from people sent by municipal social workers to help them on the benches in this square, and they even reach people from other municipalities.
Regardless of the tremendous work they do, they explain to me that the majority profile is female, many of them confused and not knowing what to do in their real need. One of the volunteers involved, Fernando, who has years of experience in social work and has even taught at university, describes with emotion the joy they shared when they received some of the many benefits they administer, often months later. from following.
But Sento and Anna took over to explain to me in detail how they had worked to transform the neighborhood’s social ecosystem in recent years, and on the same day, together with the neighborhood union, they managed to stop two evacuations of vulnerable people. Sareb, a public organization that owns a large number of apartments in low-income housing and does not cease to encourage evictions. Carolinas Bajas is also a neighborhood that expels residents who suffer from the purchase of homes and buildings by investment funds to make tourism apartments, and hence the wild rise in rents and a lack of social housing.
A neighborhood that does not have a single park or social facility, but thanks to its neighbors, has managed to have social gardens, a popular ateneum that serves as an incubator for initiatives, abandoned plots used for meetings, parties and sports events, rescue and planting in unattended tree pits, children’s games A cultural reference point, a place, drawing workshops, storytelling, beautifying balconies, book exchange points, chess tournaments, petanque courts and many other amazing activities also promoted from the Fahrenheit 451 bookstore. meeting room and library with one of the best collections in this city. And all this without a single municipal help.
Neighbors explain to me that they are tired of recording cases in town hall with no response, of enduring rejection from those who run Cigarreras, of abandoning a neighborhood by multimillionaire EDUSI. only trash cans, power poles and sidewalks have changed. Faced with too much passivity, residents decided to show that the Carolinas neighborhood resisted complacency.