San Juan de la Rambla Town Center Office Reopens After Resident Pressure
After a four-month closure spurred by resident activism, the coastal San Juan de la Rambla's town center office has reopened, offering weekly meetings with council members and prompting extended hours at the main Town Hall.
The town center of San Juan de la Rambla has its 'Mayor's Office' back. The local government office by the coast, in the old Town Hall building, reopened on Wednesday, October 15th, after being closed for four months. This happened thanks to pressure from the neighborhood association of coastal San Juan de la Rambla. These residents had also previously campaigned to keep the offices from being moved out of the town center back in 2004.
It's been 21 years since the main Town Hall was moved to the San José neighborhood, which is higher up in the town. The move started in 2001 and also controversially changed the official capital, making San José the main part of San Juan de la Rambla.
This decision was made official after a special town meeting on December 23, 2004, and signed by the mayor at the time, Manuel Reyes, on December 29th. The reason for the move was that San José had more residents and it was seen as more convenient administratively.
The Tenerife Island Council had already agreed on November 29th that San José would become the capital, with 200 local residents attending the meeting.
The Rambla neighborhood association disagreed with the move, calling it "unfair." They filed several lawsuits, and seven years later, in May 2011, the Constitutional Court ordered a review of the capital change. They ruled that the process was unconstitutional because it needed a two-thirds majority vote, which it didn't get.
During Fidela Velázquez's time as mayor (from the PSOE party, in partnership with Tomás Mesa from the PP party) between 2011 and 2013, the decision was made not to move the town hall offices back to the town center.
The reopening of the town center office includes a new feature: five members of the ruling group (CC-AUP-PP) will be available to meet with residents of coastal San Juan de la Rambla once a week, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., starting on Monday, October 20th.
This office had stopped serving the coastal residents after the local government worker retired in mid-summer. The lack of a replacement and staff vacations delayed the reopening.
The neighborhood association had also requested that the mayor and councilors be present at this local office, believing it was important for the local government to have a presence in coastal San Juan de la Rambla.
Additionally, the association's requests have ensured that the main Town Hall in San José will now be open every Wednesday afternoon from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., starting on Wednesday, October 22nd.
The neighborhood association's push to reopen the town center office is part of a larger effort. According to their president, Juan José Moreno, they are protesting "the neglect and abandonment of the entire town by the Town Hall." They are holding a gathering next Saturday, October 18th, at 11:00 a.m. at the La Rambla intersection on the TF-5 highway. Moreno says they have been making demands for years, but "we are not asking for great things. We want to achieve improvements." The neighborhood association of coastal San Juan de la Rambla was formed in early 2025 and has over 200 members.