Benidorm participates in a national meeting on ‘the future of cities’

The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, has participated today in a national meeting in which the future of cities has been addressed and if possible a new European Bauhaus and the creation of more sustainable, cohesive and fair cities. A meeting held in Logroño that is part of 'Dialogues on the Future' - an initiative promoted by the Government of Spain and by the European institutions to generate plural and informed conversations about the opportunities and challenges that Spain and the EU will face in the post-covid world-, and that Toni Pérez has shared with his counterparts from Soria and Sant Boi de Llobregat, Carlos Pérez and Llüisa Moret.
During his speech, the mayor stressed that when designing the cities of the future it is "essential to place people at the center of the action" and of the territory itself ", and to attend" to sustainability, not only environmental but also social and economic ”.
Toni Pérez has emphasized that all actions for the design and transformation of cities should be aimed at improving the quality of life and generating healthier and more livable spaces, and added that they should be included in "a city strategy", which in the case of Benidorm is reflected in the Smart Tourist Destination Master Plan (DTI) and in the different sectoral plans that are being promoted, such as the Municipal Plan for adaptation to climate change.
Benidorm, like the other two participating cities, has presented some of the measures and experiences implemented in its territories to generate more livable spaces. Among them, Toni Pérez has referred to the pedestrianization of streets, the generation of a hundred kilometers of bike lanes, the promotion of dissuasive parking; All of these measures have contributed to making "Benidorm one of the seven Spanish cities with the best air quality, and that it complies with the parameters set by the World Health Organization".
During the meeting, the mayor also stressed that "municipalism is very active" and is key in the transformation of cities. For this reason, he has demanded that apart from public-private collaboration, “public-public collaboration” should also be practiced in which the voice of the City Councils is taken into account since “we are the closest administration and the first door for neighbors ”.
In addition to being "a great opportunity", Toni Pérez has affirmed that the Next Generation funds are "an enormous lever" to accelerate the development and implementation of the "city strategy" and "to get where we had planned to go long before". Likewise, he has warned that "these funds must fit into the territory" and "cannot be tempted" to carry out projects outside of that city strategy "that only solve specific problems, that do not have a route and that do not increase the quality of life of citizens ”.