What the merchants say here on the Rambla is that it is really the last sample of the usual ninguneo of the Barcelona City Council. A few construction and container booths are erected precisely these days in the upper part of the promenade, on the sidewalk on the Besòs side, at the height of Calle Santa Anna, in one of its busiest points, and on its side, next to these installations, a traditional concrete mixer, going around, and also an electricity generator, roaring all the time and reeking of fuel.
“For Sant Jordi? –respond the workers once asked–, for Sant Jordi we will still be here, of course, surely we will, if we have at least two months of work ahead of us! "Well, here in these booths we have changing rooms, some showers, a little room to eat and those things -the workers continue-... and also space to store the materials and that, the minimum, the essentials for this type of work".
“We were installed in the Plaza Vila in Madrid, but they told us that they had to do I don't know what loading and unloading and that we had to put ourselves on the Rambla”. A junk dealer accommodated his crowded supermarket cart between the fences that flank the booths in question the day before yesterday. “We are keeping it for you, the scrap, because it is a thing not to do it, right? but let's see if he comes back, he hasn't come back today”. "But, come on, the other day a guy tried to set fire to one of the booths, everyone passes by, that's enough...". "Up to the Portal de l'Àngel, the work will advance along the entire Santa Anna street to the Portal de l'Àngel. That is why we are going back and forth with the bull all day”. Apparently, the arsonist in question, who also set a parasol at the bottom of the promenade, has already been caught.
The workers talk about some work to improve the sewage system on Santa Anna street. Municipal sources point out that they are very necessary, that they are part of the construction of the new collector on this street in the Barri Gòtic, that the City Council is doing everything possible to reduce their incidents and possible inconvenience.
“It's that they don't consult us, they don't notify us, they don't tell us anything,” says Fermín Villar, from the Amics de la Rambla neighborhood and business association, very angrily. We came across them suddenly at the beginning of the month, the happy construction booths... We asked the Ciutat Vella district and they told us they didn't know anything. Apparently it was a decision of the Urbanism area. Well, they could have put them a little higher, in the same taxi rank, which is not difficult to move, and not in front of the shops, which are suffering losses. And that's it... why not put them on the Portal de l'Àngel? They have much more space there. What happens is that on the Rambla anything goes. Here you can do everything, as is the Rambla, right? Because the Rambla is touristy and that, right? And, well, for Sant Jordi everything will be very beautiful. This is how the walk is reconciled with the Barcelonans. Actually, all this shows the consideration they have for the Rambla”.
Perhaps they exaggerate, the complaining merchants of the Rambla. Perhaps the change of season and spring have choked them and in reality all this is exaggerated and it is not such a big deal, but it is that it rains on wet, actually, on ankle-deep puddles. The exasperating delays, the endless deadlines and the slow speed of the expected remodeling of this promenade opened a deep gap between the mayor's executive Ada Colau and the Amics de la Rambla neighborhood and business association. And such internal upsets make everything else feel much worse afterwards.
