• Chamberí Campaign, the neighborhood of Ortega Smith
  • Neighborhoods El Lavapiés by Rita Maestre

José Luis Martínez-Almeida is a tetuanero by birth and with great honor. The mayor is an old acquaintance of the neighborhood and his neighbors appreciate him and compliment him. "He is charming", "very close and friendly", "he has a great sense of humor"... They are the most frequent comments heard about his figure.

The streets of Tetuán are papered with the face of the alderman on posters and canopies under the slogan: "Momento Madrid". Almeida is a prophet in his land and here he steps on friendly soil: "I am delighted with the mayor. He has widened the sidewalks, he has removed the bridge that horrible Cuatro Caminos and, now, he is also going to make a forest, "argues Carmen, a lifelong neighbor.

However, Carmen attributes to Almeida the dismantling of the scalextric of Cuatro Caminos, which was the work of former councilor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, back in 2004.

Located north of the city, Tetouan is a very heterogeneous district with many inequalities. Bravo Murillo Street acts as a kind of physical and social border. To the right of the avenue, the neighborhoods of Cuatro Caminos and Castillejos are located, noble and wealthy areas with a high purchasing power and, to the left, the neighborhoods of Bellas Vistas, Berruguete, Valdeacederas and Ventilla are located, much more humble and depressed and with a high percentage of immigrant population.

The skyscrapers of stately portals of Castillejos, where the alderman resides, have nothing to do with the humble blocks of Bellas Vistas, considered the Latin Quarter or with those of Valdeacederas, full of ghost kitchens.

In fact, while the purchase prices of housing in Castillejos reach 4,100 euros per square meter, according to the real estate portal Idealista, in Valdeacederas they fall more than 30%.

Election results

And which party wins the election in this disparate district? In the last regional elections of 2021, Isabel Díaz Ayuso obtained 48% of the votes, ahead of Más Madrid with 16% and the PSOE with 15%.

However, in the municipal elections of 2019 Almeida did not win but Más Madrid, which got 29% of the votes, ahead of the PP with 26% and Ciudadanos with 18%.

Eloy González has lived in the neighborhood since the 80s and assures that he has never met the mayor, but that if he came across him he would say: "Count on me."

"Until he arrived we were wrapped in shit from Plaza de Castilla to General Perón. La Carmena left us disgusted. Now everything is like gold," he proclaims with conviction.

Another issue that Eloy reproaches the former mayor of Ahora Madrid is that she changed some names of the streets of the neighborhood for her Francoist references. The famous avenue of Capitán Haya was renamed poet Joan Maragall and General Varela is now called Julián Besteiro. "Look, I don't forgive him for that. But we continue to use the old names. For me he is still General Varela," he says.

Almeida, in the Palacio de Cibeles.EFE

If you had to choose the perfect PP voter, it would be her: María del Carmen González-Quevedo. Perfectly combed, groomed, made up and jeweled, María del Carmen votes for the popular ones no matter what happens and, if they do it wrong, prays for them. "I am very faithful. My children vote for Vox, but I don't. I don't like that it has divided the right," he says.

Most of these residents make life on this side of the neighborhood and never cross to the other side. "I, from Bravo Murillo to there, do not step on," they say.

Not in vain that part of Tetuán is one of the favorite areas of Latin bands and there reside more than 600 Trinitarians and 250 Dominican Don't Play, which has caused numerous problems of insecurity and brawls.

In these neighborhoods, Almeida is not so loved. The neighbors criticize that the mayor has turned a deaf ear to the problem of ghost kitchens and that Tetuán is one of the districts most affected by this phenomenon.

"Almeida has abandoned us and let us down. It seems incredible that being from the neighborhood he forgets the families who live here and who fight against this scourge. These are people who have voted for the PP for many years. The only parties that have been against the kitchens have been Más Madrid and the PSOE. The mayor has forgotten his neighborhood," concludes Pilar Cuesta, one of those affected.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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