The 10 dirtiest streets in Madrid accumulate almost seven daily complaints: "This is a dunghill"

 Citizen protests for cleaning represent 20% of the claims, according to the municipal portal. It is the main concern of the neighbors far away from the rest

"Thank you for keeping this space clean ," reads a sign posted on one of the flower stalls in the central Plaza de Tirso de Molina, in the Embajadores district. The location of the message is somewhat ironic because it is located in the space that collects the most citizen complaints in Madrid due to dirt: 203 so far this year, as collected by the municipal transparency portal, which highlights the 10 dirtiest streets in the capital in the opinion of citizens, which accumulate 1,523 complaints, at an average of almost seven a day. Next to the recycling containers located in a corner there are cardboard boxes that do not fit. Next to the trees, a couple of pigeons peck through the remains of bottles, pizza boxes and beer cans. The same waste that accumulates next to the legs of the benches and chairs that surround the playground. Just 500 meters away in a straight line is Puerta del Sol, visited every day by hundreds of tourists who try to show the best side of the city.

The second place in this list of dirt is occupied by one of the ramifications of this square, Magdalena street (Embajadores district). 312 meters of public road in which 192 citizen complaints are concentrated. "It doesn't surprise me at all that it is so high on the table," says Valle Quintana, a bookstore worker and neighbor of this street. "Here those who clean the sidewalk are the neighbors and merchants," she says. As she points through her window, she adds: “Mohammed sweeps and scrubs the front of his store and the corner over there where the mosque is, there is a supermarket that cleans theirs as well. ..”. The employee goes to the door to indicate three “systematically full” containers and an afterin which dozens of people gather every weekend. “They use the street to relieve themselves, they spill their drink...”, he laments.

There are accounts on social networks managed by residents in the area dedicated to daily denouncing the conditions in Tirso de Molina and its surroundings. In some of the latest publications, mice and cockroaches are the protagonists. In this case, the poor conditions do not occur only in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. It is an area that is on the route of those who visit Madrid, with cinemas and theaters and where the rent can exceed one thousand euros per month for a 50-square-meter flat.

Neighborhood complaints due to lack of cleanliness in Madrid represent 20% of the claims made by its citizens, according to the municipal portal. It is the main concern of the neighbors at a great distance from the others. In the 2021 Survey on quality of life and satisfaction with public services in the city of Madrid , cleanliness appears as the second problem that most concerns citizens. 12.7% mentioned this aspect as the main problem in the city, while 29% placed it among the three main ones, only behind traffic and congestion. Part of the data can be attributed to the fact that the accumulation of garbage and dirt is more visible and annoying than other problems, but this has been the main concern of the people of Madrid for many years.