The ten months of work in the Plaza San Miguel de Zaragoza are beginning to weigh on the residents and businesses in the area that, they say, are affecting both their businesses and their day-to-day lives. The great transformation of this central square in the Aragonese capital began at the end of October, after the Fiestas del Pilar, with the intention of lasting approximately six months.
At the moment, Plaza San Miguel is facing a new stage with the installation of the new canopies that will serve the urban bus lines when the work on the surroundings is completed. Although the road has been open for a few months, the sidewalks are still pending completion and pedestrians still do not have the definitive space that the square will have once the reform is completed, which includes expanding the pedestrian areas, incorporating vegetation and renewing the urban furniture.
While the works are facing their tenth month, neighbors and merchants warn of the effect of the works on their day to day. Carmen Capdevila, owner of Arte Roma Enfraadores, says that the renovation is affecting her business «economically» with «losses». Customers, who cannot easily access the store, prefer to wait for the completion of the works or go to another store that offers the same service. «If customers could access through the square or through the Coso, they would go, but if you give them a solution, they have nowhere to enter. It’s a real problem,» he says. However, they find the area «bogged down» and extending the works «without any sense».
The Zaragoza City Council opened a call for aid worth 400 euros per month for businesses affected by the works. This amount, Carmen assures, does not help them: «What I really want is to be able to work, I don’t want them to give me 400 euros of aid with which I do nothing.» In this line, he adds that they want ease of access so that they can «download the material, so that customers can come and make our work easy».
«For me, those 400 euros should be invested in finishing the square, in more workers, in time, in material, in whatever is needed, but invest in finishing earlier,» he says.
