After six months of field work, in which more than a thousand citizens from all locations, strata and profiles were consulted through various participation mechanisms (there were focus groups and surveys carried out through social networks), the candidate for the Mayor Carlos Carrillo, endorsed by the Polo Democrático Alternativo, made a diagnosis of the city that did not leave the administration of Claudia López very well off.
Specifically, this exercise, carried out between November 2022 and April 2023, resulted in the identification of 633 city realities, 675 causes and 265 solutions to the problems raised, in which the lack of citizen participation was mainly highlighted; misinformation and manipulation by public entities; the lack of access to services that guarantee human rights; the corruption; poor execution and planning and the lack of employability and economic guarantees, among others.
Having said this, the responses to a series of specific questions such as what is most indignant of Bogotá, what do they expect from the Mayor’s Office, what have been their experiences with district entities and one that yielded results is striking. very saying:
Have you thought about leaving Bogotá to improve your quality of life?
Well, more than half of the responses indicated that people did want to leave Bogotá due to a lack of quality of life, since 60.8% responded that they would leave in search of a better quality of life, while that 34.3% answered no.
In this sense, some highly worrying conclusions from citizens were brought up.
For example, the majority indicated that Transportation is unworthy; that there is a deterioration in the quality of life and mental health; that the infrastructure model is not safe for women, and that the city is unequal and there are two cities: Bogotá del Norte and Bogotá del Sur, which shows the lack of planning so that there is only one city for everyone.
In conclusion, today there is a rejection of the citizenship to political issues, to democracy, to the political class, which is expressed in a very low participation in the elections, high levels of disapproval of the rulers and the growth of a deep distrust by the institutions.
Do you think you can develop your life project in Bogotá?
Despite the percentage of people who would leave the city to improve their quality of life, 80% of the people consulted are convinced that they will be able to develop their life project in the city, while 9.8% said no.
Even so, in this regard to the life project, some of the most telling realities that the Bogotanos listed was that people in a situation of poverty suffer the decisions made by a minority sector with economic and political power.
There is a lack of access to decent job opportunities for young people, forcing them to commit crimes to eat or cover their expenses, the privatization of public goods and services, and high cleaning and transportation fees, among others.
What annoys you the most about Bogotá?
What took the highest percentage was related to capital politics, since 34% of the answers referred to politicians with qualifications such as opportunists, liars, manipulators, interested parties, hypocrites, useless, selfish and petty, and around half of the comments were directly related to Mayor Claudia López.
Another 21% is outraged by transportation, 14% is outraged by corruption and impunity, 8% is outraged by quality of life and the remaining 7% is outraged by lack of civility.
What do you expect from the Mayor?
In this regard, it was reiterated that the institutions were described as inefficient, unfulfilled, disconnected from socio-territorial realities and directed towards clientelism, authoritarianism and corruption.
In this order of ideas, 61.8% of the people who participated in the online survey said that they had had a bad experience with a district entity, while 20% indicated that they had never resorted to services from district entities. 18.2% said no. In this sense, some of the citizens consulted referred to treatment of disrespect, mistreatment and indifference.
Do you consider yourself from Bogota or Bogota?
Although the citizens shared their concern about the loss of the sense of belonging, the lack of love, appreciation of the common and the lack of belonging of the people towards the city, all of them conditions that translate into a neglect of public spaces from the city, bad individual actions, disinterest and lack of empathy towards others, 95.6% consider themselves from Bogotá.
Another 2.3% said no, and in this regard some of the most telling realities showed that people live alert and distrustful, there is no sense of belonging to the public, there is a lack of respect for the other, collective individualism and there is no co-responsibility logic in the rules.
The purpose of the exercise
These spaces for participation were created with the aim of broadening the discussions around the dynamics, phenomena and experiences that citizens live in the different places they inhabit and the data collected are the main indicators to measure the relationship of trust in the State. and to build a vision of a collective city, inclusive and close between citizens and the Administration.
Taking into account the aforementioned results, the councilor stressed that today there is a rejection of the citizenry to the political fact, to democracy, to the political class and the growth of a deep distrust of the institutions.
For this reason, he stated that rebuilding the trust of Bogotanos with district institutions is urgent, as well as rethinking values such as solidarity, empathy and acceptance of the other in the interaction of citizens in community.
He also insisted that the Mayor’s Office must guarantee honesty, transparency and listening at the center of its links with citizens and must do so from its actions: governing, doing, fulfilling, protecting, respecting, serving citizens with ethics, justice and honesty. . with Infobae