By: Joan Perez, Eríc Romero, Cynthia Ruiz, Hugo Santos, Neizar Luque, Érik Maeso
We have conducted an in-person interview with the mayor of Viladecans, Carles Ruiz. We asked him questions to know what he thinks about the town. We seek to inform you about future projects in Viladecans and the things that will be improved.
Do you think Viladecans has everything necessary?
No, not at all. Besides, a mayor always thinks there’s something missing. For example, I think we still need to improve transport. We have a railway line pending, which must pass through Viladecans, an underground line, from Cornellà to Castelldefels. Let’s see if it gets back on again… I believe that this is the most important issue, transport. Then we still have a little more business and economic activities, because here we have a lot of workers, in Viladecans, and many workers have to leave Viladecans to work, because there are not enough jobs here.
What we want is for most of the people to stay in town. And then I think there’s something we have to do, apart from a new library, more sports equipment… Above all, however, we need to organise better the green areas of the city, to make the forest, in some way, penetrate further into the city, since up to now, the towns and villages have been built on the edge of the forest. I think that we must now make a connection between the forest and the city. This is called renaturalization. Then I think we have a lot to do in this respect, but we have very nice projects that we have already started, which will go in that direction.
Do you think there is a lack of leisure spaces in Viladecans for young people such as a cinema?
I totally agree with this, it is true that some of us can’t fill it, if someone decides to make a discotheque or a space for it, they’re people with private initiatives and we have nothing to do, but there’s another part that we’re trying to buy, for example we’re trying to buy the cinemas, and we’ve already got 99% of all the property and 2 years ago we tried to sign with the owner of the 1% that remains but there’s no way, between the covid and… It’s a bank, and the changes that have been made to the green banks if we’re done and we can find someone who’s starting it.
Why did you close Lauren?
We didn’t. It were shut down by the owners, who have a lot of debts, and in the end the banks kept the cinema. But we’re trying to buy it. Eight banks were left with the cinema, and the last one is costing us to buy.
Has it been proposed to take a sidewalk from here to Saint Clement so that you can go on foot there instead of in the car/other means of transport?
Yes, and indeed it is owned by the Barcelona deputation. Then they’re doing their best by already undertaking the project. The road, this part of the road from Viladecans to Sant Climent, we will pay a share. And I think we’ll be able to get a bicycle lane in time.
Do you live in Viladecans?
Yes, of course
What can you improve about Viladecans in the next few years?
From my point of view, on the one hand I can improve the issue of transport and mobility, we are now creating new means of transport, for example a bus that goes as if it were a tram and is faster than other vehicles because it takes priority in traffic lights.
Now, also, fewer people are using public transport. People will make less use of the car and the use of more forms of transport like the skateboard, the bike will be more frequent… Now the whole Delta area will have all the Bicing and this will allow people to take the bicycle more.
The other thing that can be improved is job opportunities, because the important thing is that there are many different jobs because this allows more opportunities, because there are more jobs, if there were only one type of place for each person, it would be much more difficult to find work in Viladecans.
I also believe that everything that has to do with green spaces, with people’s convenience living here changes a lot and we’re working hard on things like planting trees on the sidewalks and on the streets.
We are making a great effort on the issue of social services, on the one hand to train people so that they can work. Apart from that, the whole system that we have of helping families in different situations (male, low mental stability, social problems) as the city earns economically, allows us to put more money into it.
If I put more trees on the sidewalks and on the streets, it’s proven that the temperature will be low, things like these that we’re working on a lot.
Do you think the Outlet was an improvement for Viladecans?
Yeah, sure. The Outlet still has to grow. It’s a kind of business we didn’t have in Viladecans, it won’t compete with neighborhood business, because in a city, you buy in your shop below where you know the shop assistant.
On the other hand, it has caused many people to come to Viladecans and the people of Viladecans are going out to buy, since there were many things in Viladecans that are not found, now between Vilamarina and Outlet you do not need to go outside to buy.
Businesses like the Outlet, with a point of view to tourism, keep people here to buy our products instead of going to Barcelona and this is very good because it is a service that helps the city economically and in other area.
What benefits did you bring to the city?
I believe that two very clear things in which Viladecans has improved, one being the education. We put tablets to help schools (public and concerted) to improve their skills, and this has caused the educational level of Viladecans to rise over previous years.
And the other thing that Viladecans has improved is job opportunities, I think we’ve got more job opportunities than ever and that at the same time it has enabled us to do good services like the Atrium, places for older people and with problems and improve some.
Since Viladecans has grown economically, it has served us to be able to make resources available for social services, since it was previously because there were few jobs, it was very difficult to raise money to be able to make projects like these, since the families of Viladecans are middle-class and sometimes low-class people.
What do you think is the reason why the people of Viladecans voted for you all this time?
I think they must have seen that Viladecans has made progress which was very difficult to advance, for example, the city’s education advance which is long-term projects. Very strong projects have been carried out, such as, for example, the arrival of a cable in all the centres and also in the homes of the people. I believe that people have seen this changes, from Viladecans earlier, which is a very substantial change in the opportunities a person has in Viladecans and which certainly do not have a person who is not living in Viladecans.
I also believe that people have seen that we are trying to greatly improve people’s quality of life, we are very concerned about the social sphere and I think that in the pandemic we have seen a lot of effort being made to help people, and I think that people see that.
Do you think Viladecans has good emergency services?
Yes. On one hand, I think it’s very hard to know what the next emergency will be, for example the pandemic, no one imagined that would happen. If you had asked me this before the pandemic, I would have told you that there was nothing missing, but with the pandemic, there are things that we’ve seen from now on that will have to be taken into account.
It is very difficult to say whether you have good emergency services because you are facing uncertainty about what can happen. We’re lucky we’ve got a hospital and the coordination of the Mossos, the police, the Generalitat, the firefighters…
And lastly, how do you think Viladecans will bein twenty years’ time, do you think you’ll have a subway service already?
I believe that if it is not a subway, it will be the tram I mentioned earlier, but in twenty years’ time I am convinced that it will.
