The Metro, road rehabilitation and insecurity are part of the issues that Guarderas will have to face in the 17 months that remain in office
For the first time in his capacity as mayor of Quito, Santiago Guarderas will preside today the solemn session for the 487 years of the founding of the city, with a marked agenda, more than for the celebrations, for the pending issues and a controversial balance of this holiday weekend.
Mayor took office on September 29 and he only has 17 months of management left. After fighting in the courts for the position, his first offers were to put “the house in order” (referring to the Municipality), rehabilitate the historic center, repair the streets, reactivate the economy (seriously affected by the confinement) and face the pandemic.
In the two months that he has been in these functions, Guarderas it has not been easy for him to position his administration as distinct from that of the removed mayor Jorge Yunda.
For the urban affairs expert and former councilman Fernando Carrion, the short time Guarderas will be in charge of the capital “should be understood as a transition.”
“You don’t have time to do new and important hiring and projects”, Indian. And he explained that the changes required by the Municipality are structural and not a decision that is taken from one moment to the next. For example, he said, the council’s management model “has to be changed, because the public spending (of the bureaucracy) is very high, there is more than 30% of the budget ”.
On the other hand, there are works that require urgent decisions. In the words of Guarderas himself, the Metro is a white elephant that takes away sleep, while the deterioration of the road network is evident, with more than 80% of the streets destroyed, or the saturation of the municipal public transport system, with the consequent problems of insecurity, informality and congestion.
Managers of municipal companies, such as Public Works (Epmmop) and Potable Water (Epmaps), for example, have blamed the previous administrations.
The councilor Analía Ledesma, de la ID, who gave him his vote for Guarderas to replace Yunda, is not optimistic. “Starting the Quito Metro is the most urgent work, but (the mayor) is not going to do it, for the time he has left ”.
In addition, he noted that there are serious problems “That have not been confronted with leadership”, such as insecurity in public spaces, constant crowds. Among these, those that are They searched the avenue of the Shyris on holidays, in which, “in an unprecedented event, there was not enough control, under the pretext of reactivation.”
On the issue of crime, the councilor explained that the 63% of crimes in the capital are committed with knives and that although the Municipality Security Commission has already prepared the ordinance to regulate this issue and drug use, so far “The mayor does not put the issue on the agenda so that the Metropolitan Council knows it ”.
Mayor Guarderas, on his side, has stated that in the short time that his administration has it is not possible to solve all the problems that the city has and that, nevertheless, they are being confronted so that the next administration can execute measures longer range.
Until the closing of this edition there was not yet an official report on the excesses in the celebrations performed in the streets; However, the authorities and Guarderas himself, on Twitter, admitted and condemned the attacks and destruction. (I)
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