The left-wing party, IU, in Granada denounce that consumers are being ‘excluded’ in the northern district of the city. Distrito Norte comprises of eight barrios,four of which are Almanjáyar, Campo Verde, Cartuja and Casería de Montijo.

Maite Molina, who is a city councillor for the IU, complains that the 40,000 inhabitants of that area are “off the map, as if it were a war zone.” She says that she heard of the case of a woman that one company did not want to home-deliver a product that the woman wished to buy, even thought it was just across the city.

This kind of ‘reluctance’ on the part of companies that provide services is wide spread where Distrito Norte is concerned, hence the claim that “consumers are being excluded.” The sort of companies involved are supermarkets, taxi drivers, phone repairmen and even the postal service, and all because certain streets are considered dangerous. You could even add the municipal police to that list.

The beef (complaint) that the IU councillor is that many of these company charge for a service that they won’t provide, in the case of telephone companies, for example.

Accordingly, the councillor wants to bring up the issue in the next plenary meeting of he City Council to stamp out this ‘discrimination.’

Editorial comment: if taxi drivers and delivery men outright refuse to enter into the area, it is for a good reason. A telephone engineer will come back and find the wheels missing of his van, or the windows smashed. Taxi drivers are for ever being mugged, in some case with extreme violence.

Bearing that in mind, perhaps Mrs Maite Molina would like to spend a fun weekend in Distrito Norte? She could even rent a flat there – rent is quite cheap, after all – so that she continue her crusade closer to home?

On a personal note, an ex-girlfriend of mine used to live in the Casería de Montijo, when she was studying at the university in Granada – she shared with three other girls. Paradoxically, living there you were quite safe; it’s outsiders or visitors that run the risks.

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Andalucia)