We all want our neighborhood to be clean. And this makes sense. The big (and thorny) question is: Do all neighborhoods need/deserve/receive the same attention? Or in other words, should all streets have the same priority? If not, what criteria should you follow to decide? This is no small problem considering that no matter how big, rich and well-run a city council is, its resources are limited, including the resources it provides to maintain streets and sidewalks.

To cope with this task, Madrid created a system with varying levels and intensities of cleaning depending on the area. City Hall even lets you consult it on an online map. It came as no surprise to anyone that this option sparked controversy due to differences between neighborhoods and possible explanations.

One map, several levels. The city of Madrid is 60,436 hectares. To ensure the cleanliness of the roads and sidewalks, the City Council opted for a four-level cleaning system, which can be better understood with the help of colors and a map, which the City Council provides on its website. Basically, each path has its own color, and each color indicates a different level of maintenance.

The busiest color is brown, which means the sanitation services are doing their best on those streets and sidewalks. At the pole are red and purple colors, corresponding to the third and fourth levels and reflecting a lower intensity.

Is there that much difference? Yes, the City Council explains this. To avoid going into the boring details of each of the four levels, we can review what service the first one includes (brown) and what the last one includes (purple).

In areas with maximum levels, operators work with their vacuums five times a week, flushing occurs at the same times, and a daily “maintenance quarter” is also offered. Hand washing and washing of the neighborhood is also planned, at least once every day, to ensure clean roads and sidewalks. The situation is quite different at level four (purple), with one neighborhood per week and one bucket per month.

A matter of colors (and degrees). Obviously there are several intermediate levels between one level and another. In the second (blue) the broom is washed thirteen times a week and is spent at the same times. Both are performed on different days. Within the category there are different plots that differ in the frequency of “maintenance sweeps”: daily on the streets of plots one and two; on other public roads three times a week, on non-consecutive days. At the third level (red) cleaning is done every other day and washed once a week.

So how are colors decided? Big question. Not because of the colours, of course, but because appearing on the map with one or the other of them means that the road you travel every day may be swept several times each day, or just once a week.

The City Council is clear on this issue. The first level is assigned to the streets where the highest level of activity is concentrated and those that need it most. In their own words, these are public roads that are “dirtier, more demanding, more heavily used.” At the opposite pole, purple is assigned to roads and sidewalks that “contain less dirt.”

Más Madrid’s complaint. Recently, the municipal opposition Más Madrid group took out the magnifying glass to examine the road maintenance system and concluded that some of the city’s richest neighborhoods are also its cleanest, while its poorest neighborhoods are dirtier.

“When we look at the map, we see that the areas with the highest intensity of cleanliness are located exactly in the neighborhoods where the PP received the most support in 2019 (the legislature where the specifications were drawn up) and the streets with the lowest level of cleanliness. The party said in a report it collected that “cleanliness is also the least votes “It also corresponds to the areas receiving it,” he said. People.

“Prioritize the rich”. Councilor José Luis Nieto went further, accusing the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, pointing to a direct relationship: “He prioritizes the wealthiest areas by providing them with more and better sanitation services.” According to him, the model needs to be reconsidered because “there is such a huge disparity between counties and between neighborhoods,” especially if reference is made to M-30 and the areas on both sides of the road.

go into details. The analysis extends to specific cases such as the towns of Valverde and Mirasierra, where chalets, large farms and swimming pools are located. First, although Valverde has “equipment like a school or a football field”, the report shows that he loses in comparison. Their conclusion is clear: three of the cleanest areas are also the wealthiest areas of the capital.

Country He cites another example. Despite being Madrid’s fifth most populous neighborhood with 42,300 residents per square kilometer, a pressure water cleaning truck passes through 75% of Berruguete once a week. The situation is different in Castillejo, where there are 29,000 people per square kilometer: 65% of the streets are cleaned or washed every day. Always according to the data and comparisons collected in the report Más Madrid published a few months ago.

Colors… and percentages. Because it usually gives more information about the percentage rather than lengthy descriptions, the study provides an extra piece of information that was also echoed by the SER network in June: a comparison between the surfaces of each zone enjoying the benefits of level one cleanliness; That is, exactly what percentage of each neighborhood is marked in brown on the municipal map.

The analysis shows notable differences. For example, in the center, 43% of the surface is at the first level. The percentages are also significant in Chamberí (32%), Retiro (29%), Salamanca (27%) or Tetúan (23%). In Villaverde, San Blas-Canillejas, Hortaleza, Barajas and Villa de Vallecas, which are at the opposite pole, the percentages are much lower, at 4% or 3%.

cleaning the environment. Más Madrid is not the only country to express concerns about how the roads and pavements are being cleaned. During the summer, Facua also raised its voice to demand improvements and warned that “environmental classism” could be seen on the outskirts of the capital. “Facua once again regrets that it is the peripheral areas with the lowest incomes that are least cleaned, as almost no human and material resources are allocated,” the consumer association said after reviewing the Cleaning Service contract.

What about other cities? Madrid is not alone in adapting the service to each neighborhood. Barcelona City Council also acknowledges that the cleanliness of public spaces is “adapted to the reality of each location”, taking into account factors such as vehicle traffic, human passage, frequency of use, commercial activity or whether these areas are areas of entertainment and recreation. . “Squares and streets do not have the same density of use,” they say from Barcelona. These are not the only examples of city councils announcing on their websites that they plan to clean up by taking into account each neighborhood’s “needs” and “uses.”

Pictures | Daniel Lobo (Flickr) and Madrid City Council

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