Lleida is the Catalan capital with the largest socioeconomic gap between neighborhoods, with almost 100 points difference in the Territorial Socioeconomic Index of Idescat between the Centre Històric, which scores 35.3, and Ciutat Jardí, which reaches 134.6.
The distance between these two points in the city is barely around 10 minutes by car. This proximity contrasts with a income gap that exceeds that of any other provincial capital in Catalonia, where Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona register internal differences of more than 90 points between their most distant electoral districts.
La Paeria Allocates 25 Million to the Centre Històric Over Five Years
The municipal government of La Paeria acknowledges the income difference between areas of the city and states that it is working to reduce it through improvements in living conditions and the promotion of housing and facilities in neighborhoods with the worst indicators.
Carlos Enjuanes, second deputy mayor and councilor for Social Action and Innovation, specified that the comprehensive plan for the Centre Històric includes a hundred actions and that a large part of the program is financed with 25 million euros from the Neighborhood Plan for the next five years.
Among the measures underway, La Paeria is promoting affordable housing for young people through public-private collaboration, the grouping of plots to build quality housing, and the recovery of facilities such as the old Cervantes school, in addition to green spaces.
Cristina Armengol, president of the Association of Neighbors and Merchants of the Centre Històric de Lleida, links the low incomes in the neighborhood to the weight of the working population with low-skilled jobs and the state of the old residential stock, which lowers rents.
"The investments from the Neighborhood Plan are very good, but we need to see actions and results" - Cristina Armengol, president of the Association of Neighbors and Merchants of the Centre Històric de Lleida
Armengol demands that building rehabilitation and urban reform take priority within this deployment, in an area that concentrates the worst data of the indicator in the city.
Ciutat Jardí Disputes the Index and Demands More Services in a Neighborhood with the UdL and Firefighters
At the opposite extreme, Ramir Bonet, president of the Association of Neighbors of Ciutat Jardí, maintains that the index does not accurately portray the neighborhood and that the classification should be based on the median and not the average.
Bonet rejects the image of a comfortable area without nuances and assures that in Ciutat Jardí live working-class people, including technicians, civil servants, and entrepreneurs, who face mortgages and current expenses.
"We have a school and nothing else, and we want a kindergarten because between 50 and 70 children are born here every year. We also don't have a day center" - Ramir Bonet, president of the Ciutat Jardí Neighborhood Association
The neighborhood association adds that the neighborhood suffers from a lack of public services despite hosting a prison, a park of the Generalitat Firefighters, and a campus of the University of Lleida. It also asks the Paeria for license plate reader cameras at the entrances to hinder the escape of thieves.
Outside of Lleida, the Idescat map places Matadepera, Tiana, and Sant Just Desvern in the upper part of municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants, while Salt, Sant Pere Pescador, and Seròs appear in the lower part. Other municipalities such as el Pont de Suert, Llinars del Vallès, Vielha, Torelló, Maçanet de la Selva, Sallent, and l'Escala show a much more balanced distribution, with internal differences ranging from 10 to 16 points.