29 May 2012
I've written various posts about "la crisis" (the crisis) here in Spain. The conservative government led by Rajoy is making cuts across the board in order to bring Spain out of the economic crisis.
However, I haven't written as much about the cuts being made here in Alicante and the Comunidad Valenciana. The government in Alicante has been doing everything possible to save money--some of these measures are a little strange.
A few months ago, the government announced that they were going to shut down fountains throughout the city as a way to save money. All the fountains in the city are only allowed to be on for one hour each day. So if you see a fountain running, it's your lucky day. This has been sad for me because there is a lovely fountain around the block from my apartment that I never see running anymore. Though I haven't read any figures about how much this is saving the government, I suppose shutting down fountains is better than firing someone--especially since Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe.
More recently, a second measure has been put in place--shutting down unnecessary traffic lights. I'm not sure how the government decided which traffic lights are unnecessary, but they've shut down a number of traffic lights (on one way streets) near where I live. The traffic light in front of my school was shut down for a number of days--though I'm not a 100% sure if it was due to this measure or just broken. Thankfully, there is usually a policeman around to direct traffic before and after school, but it was still alarming to think that there wasn't a traffic light working in a student zone.
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