A review of the Remodelling Plan of Peripheral Neighborhoods in Madrid: The impact of deprived areas regeneration in the cities transformation dynamics, C. Gallego and C. Martínez, 2011. (original) (raw)

The review of policies, programs and funding systems of the European urban agenda evidences a global concern about the multidimensional problems and the dynamics of degradation suffered by many of the mono-functional social housing areas of the first urban peripheries and its serious effects on the rest of the city. There is a political and institutional interest to reduce social, economic and environmental conflicts of these areas in crisis. However, except on rare occasions when behind the Operation are vested interests, these rehabilitation projects are not planned within the framework of global strategies aimed to transform the entire city. As a result, cities are changing quickly blurring its limits, while renewed neighborhoods remain as isolated islands, urban and socially disconnected within the general scene of the city. In this context, it is appropriate evaluate new strategies to restore these degraded areas and seek formulas to cope with the challenge of integrating the revitalizing processes into the dynamics of the city. This paper is a reflection on the regeneration processes based on the Remodeling Neighborhoods Operation launched in the periphery of Madrid in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of the actuations led by local government, as a starting point to discuss about useful alternatives for similar experiences and mechanisms that seek successful outcomes for both quarters and cities. Overall, the neighborhoods selected to be remodeled were built hastily to accommodate the flood of people moving to the city with low quality standards and also concentrating social conflictive population, that drives to a starting critical situation ineffective treated by institutions. Therefore, these neighborhoods are subject of continuous degradation dynamics. The new infrastructure and urban development of Madrid have changed the position of these deprived areas that originally were located at outlying areas with accessibility and isolation problems, and now are well-connected neighborhoods but socially stigmatized. A neighbor of Fuencarral settlement describes this change just like this: "We were displaced outside the city and now we are standing over gold." The institutional action in these areas comes as a response to social tensions and protests of the organized citizens at the end of the dictatorship regime. As a result, the State sets up the Remodeling Operation and the necessary structures and legal basis to act in 28 slums. The Remodeling Operation began in the late 70's and concludes in the late 80's. Subsequently, other areas in similar conditions also require the same treatment, and the Remodeling was extended to other 8 suburbs, though some of them have at the moment no sign of remodeling activity. In these decades, the Operation has undergone several phases in which different problems have been detected, mainly due to execution times of each experience, housing tenure system and different interests between communities and institutions. Though in the first projects the communities engagement was great, in the current experiences the communities are less organized and have lost pressure capability. In this situation, the revitalization of these areas in a participatory manner and its integration with the rest of the city taking into account the identity of each neighborhood may be an interesting opportunity. For these communities is the chance to achieve quality levels of urban life, improve energy efficiency and connect with the dynamics of the city. Whilst for the cities means recovering the activities of bonded areas located at strategic points, reducing energy consumption and fostering sustainable urban development. Furthermore, this is a necessary debate in the current European scene, in which we can observe an increase in number of participatory community development experiences that have to cope with difficulties due to lack of interests and mechanisms to integrate them in the city strategies.