A group of citizens concerned about the fate of the Vale de Santo António promoted an "alternative consultation" through a community survey. After several months, the results of this online questionnaire, which gathered nearly 600 contributions, are now available.
Civic participation in the city can manifest itself in various ways. In the case of a collective of citizens concerned about the fate of the Vale de Santo AntónioIt took the form of a community survey. Over the course of several months, Hugo, João, António and Filipa conducted a "alternative consultation" about the Valley where urban development is slow to arrive. Unhappy with the Lisbon City Council's plans for the area, they decided to present a different proposal and added an online questionnaire to gather contributions from the interested population. The results are now in.
"We are pleased to share with you the results of a survey, carried out over four months by a group of Lisbon residents, on the project approved by Lisbon City Council at the end of May"writes this group of residents in a letter addressed to the Mayor, Carlos Moedas, which LPP has had access to and which you can read at the end of the article. "The survey invited people living in Lisbon to reflect on this space" e "was aimed at all Lisbon residents who have, or may have, an interest in the fate of Vale de Santo António"explain the promoters, who share knowledge of circular economy, sociology, statistics and communication.
The citizens' group points to two main reasons for holding the event survey:
- "Firstly, because we believe that he current Vale de Santo António project is a 20th century solution to 21st century challenges. Densely urbanizing the area is not a solution to the housing problem it aims to solve. On the contrary, it will create problems now and in the future."
- "Secondly, because we believe that the consultations that have taken place in this context - and those that will take place - question people about the project without any room for alternative thinking what the city and the people really need. With this exercise, we aim to enrich the debate and convince stakeholders of the need to rethink the project."
The consultation received almost 600 responses (598 to put it in concrete terms):
- 53% of the respondents do not agree with the project presented by the City Council; 19% are in favor, 5% agree in part with the project and 23% have no opinion. Considering only the parishes bordering the valley (postal codes 1170 and 1900), it can be said that 56% of those surveyed do not agree with the project;
- 92% believes that the housing crisis in Lisbon is very serious. There is evidence that many of those surveyed do not consider building more houses to be a solution to the housing problem: 37% gives a rating of "1" or "2" when asked to agree with the following statement on a scale of 1 to 5: "building more houses is a solution to the housing problem";
- 89% of those surveyed believe that the housing problem should be solved through rehabilitation and 80% believes that a policy that favors rehabilitation should be the focus of housing policies;
- 86% believes that the City Council should give priority to actions aimed at combating climate change and biodiversity loss. And 97% believes that green spaces are extremely important;
- Also, 51% of all respondents think there are better alternatives for the space, and 47% is concerned about the negative ecological impact of the project.
When the respondents who said they did not agree with the project currently under discussion were asked about the alternative future for Vale de Santo António (the 53%), 80% of them said that they would like to be able to rethink the use of the space. The following ideas were shared through the survey:
Hugo, João, António and Filipa also received several ideas and contributions via e-mail. Based on the results of the survey and this "alternative consultation", the citizens' collective has several proposals for the Chamber by Carlos Moedasincluding the promoting a Citizens Council specific to the Vale de Santo António.
They also suggest deepen your knowledge of "major projects underway at European level in which cities are tackling the same challenges in a sustainable way"that a "global study of the environmental, social and economic impact of the project" taking into account "the Chamber's commitments to climate neutrality under the 2030 Agenda", to create a "dedicated municipal team to identify solutions to the underutilization of the city's existing housing stock"and, finally, to start "as soon as possible" a "a project to regenerate the Valley's green space in the areas defined as unaffected by construction".
The collective believes that "these recommendations are a first step towards responding to the concerns expressed in the survey, which will certainly allow us to think of other suggestions and measures". For this group of people, "The important thing is that, at this time of unprecedented crises, institutions can imagine new ways of solving problems in the short, medium and long term (between generations), with creativity and boldness. We also firmly believe that we need to stop thinking of the issues of nature regeneration and urban development as if they were a 'zero-sum game': nowadays, urban development can only be achieved by regenerating nature.".
You can read about this work in detail here:
