Neither the neighborhood entities, nor the current mayor, nor the previous mayor, nor even the merchants association that filed the lawsuit against the redevelopment of Consell de Cent street. Nobody wants the green axis of Eixample to go back to being like before, a passageway for cars. This was made clear yesterday by the president of Barcelona Oberta, Gabriel Jené, who even expressed his surprise at the forcefulness of the judge's decision that has condemned the City Council to reverse a practically finished work.
“We want to give peace of mind to the entire city,” Jené said at a press conference at the Foment del Treball headquarters shortly after meeting with Mayor Jaume Collboni. “It is not our desire to return to the previous Consell de Cent,” insisted the president of the entity that brings together 21 commercial and tourist hubs.
The intention of Barcelona Oberta and Foment is now to open a new stage of dialogue with the current government, a condition that they consider did not exist during the time of Mayor Colau and that has led to the judicialization of this and other municipal projects. And a condition. on the other hand, that it was already taken for granted with the relief in the mayor's office.
“We understand that the solution is not for bricklayers to solve. We have to resolve it together with the dialogue that has not existed and that we want,” said Jené. “This situation is not resolved by the bricklayers, but by dialogue,” he added, circling the same argument.
How will this dialogue take place? The question does not have an easy answer. From the outset, the president of Barcelona Oberta explained, there is the mayor's commitment to create a working group that allows, without hardly touching the new configuration of the Consell de Cent, to address the demands of the merchants, that is, to adopt new measures that facilitate access by private vehicle to the city center and overcome a traffic situation that he described as “hellish.”
Review and possible elimination of some bike lanes that are rarely used? Reconsideration of some chamfers today saturated with elements and that make loading and unloading tasks difficult? The debate has not yet begun but it is already shaping up to be one of the great issues for the city in the coming years. It is likely that some of these measures will end up affecting a prominent artery, Via Laietana, one of the main channels connecting the Eixample with Ciutat Vella and the seafront, undergoing a profound transformation and with the works already very advanced.
The president of Barcelona was optimistic about the possibility of an improvement in the relationship between the entity he represents and the City Council and clearly differentiated the attitude of Ada Colau and her deputy mayor for Urban Planning, Janet Sanz, from that of Jaume Collboni. and his number two, Laia Bonet. In this sense, he regretted Colau's reaction to the court ruling, which she called "lack of respect." “I had the opportunity to reach out to dialogue and recognize that I made a serious mistake,” he stated before demanding that the opinion of this sector be taken into account in future urban transformations that affect commerce.
Gabriel Jené appeared at a press conference at the Foment headquarters, on Via Laietana, together with the general secretary of the business organization, David Tornos, and the lawyer José Soria, who reported on the content of the ruling by the contentious court judge. administrative number 5 of Barcelona that La Vanguardia reported the day before yesterday.
The widespread opposition to reversing the work of Consell de Cent is undoubtedly influenced by economic aspects. Beyond the cost – and inconvenience – that would entail returning the street to its previous configuration, it must be taken into account that this project was financed with 25 million euros from European Next Generation funds. A reversal could entail in the worst case the return of that item, an aspect in which the current municipal government does not want to enter, convinced as it is that it will not be necessary to reach that extreme situation.
Eixample Respira, one of the most active platforms in the defense of traffic calming in Barcelona, has asked the City Council not to take steps back in Consell de Cent and other streets and Barcelona Oberta to rethink its strategy of opposition to green axes. The entity is not satisfied with the measures to restrict car use adopted so far and has called a demonstration for next Friday so that Aragó Street stops being “an urban highway.”
ONCE also wanted to intervene in this citizen debate and has asked the City Council to take advantage of it to "rethink" Consell de Cent street, which lacks sidewalks and traffic lights at intersections that facilitate use by blind people. . The territorial delegate in Catalonia, Enric Botí, pointed out that scooters and bikes, which now circulate at will on this street, should go in the middle of the road.
