Now, as we begin to look back at the summer period with nostalgia, we can be sure of one thing: in September, the campaign for the municipal elections begins. Therefore, it is not only necessary to start closing the pending folders of the current municipal governments, but it also becomes necessary to state and present proposals for the future.
You will see how we will hear about the right to the city again, even, as is currently done, about the right to stay in the city. However, I would like to make an exciting proposal that involves taking a step further in order to effectively guarantee all rights and duties of proximity at the municipal level: to address the demand, with determination, rigor, imagination, and creativity, for the right to live well in the city.
As a proposal for the future, it is in our interest to recover narrative sovereignty and consider that it is not enough for citizens to have access to the city; they must have access to a good life in the city. We cannot just remain with the right to stay in the city; we must also defend the right to be well in it, to prosper, and to live there in fullness.
That is why we need to transition towards the right to live well in the city, without forgetting the corresponding duties. And I would dare to say that, more than a right, we are talking about a system. The right to live well in the city must configure a system in which the different elements only acquire meaning in their interaction.
Without wishing to be exhaustive, I would say that the elements that configure the system of the right to live well in the city imply: that the neighborhood is not expelled from its territory; that everyone who needs it can access decent, adequate, and accessible housing; that children, youth, the elderly, people with disabilities, and migrants are considered important actors in the construction of municipal public policies; that the City Council registers people in the city, if they actually live there, with or without a fixed address; that noise and dirt are effectively dealt with; that coexistence and the safety of everyone are guaranteed; that solidarity and care for those who need it most are practiced through robust social services; that the City Council expressly responds within a reasonable time to all inquiries, requests, and demands formulated by the citizenry; and that we can live in and enjoy a sustainable city.
In short, this set of elements that structure the right to live well in the city should guide the design of all municipal public policies. This systemic vision should allow us to rethink the city from the perspective of urban well-being and configure a political project that challenges the model of the city we desire. A city model where the human rights of proximity are effectively guaranteed, understood as the basic needs or legitimate aspirations, inherent to all people who inhabit or pass through the city, which must be covered in order to guarantee the right to a life worthy of being lived at the local level.
This has been the way of working that we have implemented at the Office of the Ombudsman of Barcelona for five years. In this new stage that we are now beginning, with great enthusiasm and renewed hopes, I have, among others, seven concrete proposals to make the defense of the right to live well in the city a reality: putting artificial intelligence at the service of people; promoting the appropriate resolution of controversies, through the creation of a mediation office at the Ombudsman; working to achieve a more transparent City Council; addressing homelessness in an innovative and collaborative way, through the launch of a pilot project (Zero Street Plan); increasing the democratic quality of citizen participation; strengthening reparation work in cases of sexual abuse or rights violations in the city through the reparation commission; and participating in a European project to strengthen and implement this new rights-system.
I encourage all political groups, from small, medium, and large municipalities, to embrace this systemic vision of the right to live well in the city for the proposals they make in the electoral campaign. Certainly, if they do not remain just proposals, the entire citizenry would benefit.
