Atila Awards 2024 in La Rioja • Ecologists in Action

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On the occasion of the celebration of World Environment Day, Ecologists in Action of La Rioja awards its Atila and Caballo de Atila awards to the most outstanding behaviors of the year for their contribution to the destruction of the environment.

On the occasion of the celebration of World Environment Day, Ecologists in Action of La Rioja awards its Atila and Caballo de Atila awards to the most outstanding behaviors of the year for their contribution to the destruction of the environment.

Atila Award to the Mayor of Logroño Conrado Escobar, for:

1. The destruction of the east-west cycling axis of Logroño, by eliminating the bike lane as it passes through Avenida de Portugal without creating a new cycling infrastructure to replace it.
2. Destroy said bicycle axis again by modifying the Dutch roundabout in Plaza Fuente de Murrieta, eliminating the horizontal signage that defines the bike lane and placing two yields that give preference to motor vehicles.
3. The consolidation project for Duquesa de la Victoria Street, which returns more space to the automobile and lays out a street that allows more speed and, therefore, more noise and more insecurity.
4. The lack of listening and the denial of the participation of mobility associations and organizations in the actions of the Logroño City Council.
5. The absolute lack of transparency and public information, having not responded to repeated letters requesting environmental information.

Conrado Escobar is going to go down in history as the mayor who destroyed the best cycling route for sustainable mobility in Logroño. And he has done it:

• Before six months of entry into service.
• Putting the money of all the people of Logroño at risk, as it was a project financed with European funds that required them to maintain the action for a minimum of 5 years or return the subsidy.
• Without complying with the legal procedures, given that the regulatory regulations require before any modification to request it from the Ministry and wait for its authorization.
• Deliberately and undemocratically excluding any type of public participation, given that in none of the destructions have the citizens of Logroño been listened to and, even less so, the users, but instead action has been taken from one day to the next, avoiding dialogue, despite to boast of being the mayor of dialogue and consensus. Although it is true that he met one day with 4 hoteliers related to the double line.
• Making obscurantism and partisan bias the way of working internally in the City Council, by not responding to the writings of social organizations requesting information on municipal actions, which makes it impossible for said associations to do the work that is their responsibility.
• Favoring the private car over the means of sustainable mobility and, therefore, a more polluted and unsafe city, anchored in outdated mobility criteria. This can be seen in the current configuration of the Fuente de Murrieta roundabout, which creates serious risks for cyclists and makes its Dutch roundabout useless, as well as in the usual double row on Avenida de Portugal or in the modification of the Duquesa de la Victoria consolidation project.

And Attila’s horse in this edition is shared between three winners for the same fact:

1. The promoter of the HOLIKA music festival for the destruction of a natural riverside thicket and its subsequent filling with aggregate to double the surface area of ​​a stage for its Calahorra festival.
2. Shared with the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Environment of the Government of La Rioja for the apathy and misinformation demonstrated both in the investigation of these events and in the delay in imposing on those responsible for the destruction the obligation of immediate restoration of the land to its initial state.
3. And also shared with the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation for the same reasons as the previous Administration.

We hope not to have to extend this to the Calahorra City Council in the event that it does not proceed properly with the processing of the file it initiated due to these events.