https://www.politico.eu/article/madrid-rio-complex-reclaimed-river-m-30/
'MADRID — Carmen Muñoz lives in a building just a stone's throw from Madrid's
largest river, but for most of her life, her view of the water was blocked by a
major eyesore — the Spanish capital's main ring road, the M-30.
For nearly 40 years, the six-lane thoroughfare — the busiest in the country —
acted like a concrete corset around the Manzanares river, cutting off locals'
access to the waterway.
"The river was invisible to me: In its place, there was only the M-30," said
Muñoz. "The rumble of cars was constant, and if you made the mistake of opening
the windows car fumes and soot would fill every corner of the flat."
That has since changed thanks to a major project that saw the highway buried, a
sprawling park built above it, and the heavily polluted Manzanares restored to
health.
The three-pronged infrastructure scheme, which started in 2004 and took nearly
a decade to complete, has been hailed as both a "miracle of engineering" and a
model for restoring damaged ecosystems and improving access to nature in urban
spaces.
Although it was initially met with skepticism, the transformation is now hugely
popular, especially among neighborhood residents like Muñoz, who said she "no
longer [wakes] up to the noise of honking cars, but rather to the sound of
birds singing in the trees that now line the river."
As local leaders across Europe try to offset the need to green their cities
against worries about popular pushback, Madrid's success story is a lesson on
how to strike the right balance — and push through major changes.'
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-trachoma-human-rights-mexico-river-madrid-spain/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
