By The Star Staff
Terestella González Denton, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for mayor of San Juan, said Monday that one of her priorities if elected will be to eradicate the overriding feeling of pessimism among citizens of the capital city about their future, as evidenced in recent polls.
“That’s what I’ve experienced in the walks I’ve been doing since the beginning of the year in the communities of San Juan,” she said. “I come to transform that pessimism into hope and action. San Juan deserves more than it has right now.
The president of the PDP’s San Juan municipal committee said the focus of her work as mayor will be to improve the quality of life of the people of San Juan.
“Quality of life is not a cliché, it is not a campaign slogan or an empty promise,” she said. “Quality of life is a concept that seeks to denote the well-being of the individual in his or her deepest understanding of social, family and self-related relationships. In San Juan, it translates into health, economy, security, education, housing and environmental satisfaction.”
Quality of life, at the formal level, is visualized when biological, economic, social and psychological demands are met individually up to the community level, González Denton added. It is a broad concept that is achieved through health, safety, education, physiological state, level of independence, social relationships and relationship with the environment, as well as self-pride.
The candidate said she is developing a strategic plan with elements that seek to establish “fundamental rights, sports, health, access to cultural assets, security and housing for individuals and families in our capital city.”
The elements include:
1) Transform the education system, to offer students a comprehensive education, including access to the creation and consumption of cultural goods, and to turn the school into the center of socioeconomic activity in their communities.
2) Develop the potential of sport and recreation as a tool for social transformation and economic development.
3) Strengthen the family as an institution of primary socialization and as a participatory entity in the economic, social and political life of San Juan.
4) Develop an integrated health strategy for the entire population, focused on prevention, that is equitable, sustainable and effective.
5) Ensure the right to adequate housing for the different demographic groups, promoting sustainable construction and, above all, housing rehabilitation.
6) Develop as a municipality the capacity to prevent, mitigate, and protect and recover from the threats that represent the greatest risk to the quality of life of citizens.
“It must be the first responsibility of every municipality to contribute so that every citizen can aspire to a full life, of hope, with real opportunities in tune with their talents and abilities,” González Denton said. “A healthy, safe and happy San Juan, in which we have sustained public education as supportive, autonomous, sustainable, and innovative, connected and interdependent communities. A model city that promotes and appreciates art and culture, as an expression of its identity; that adopts sport, physical activity and recreation as part of its lifestyle; and where the rights and well-being of individuals and families are respected and protected.”