Miquel Puig was the star signing of Ernest Maragall in the last municipal elections. He accepted the proposal to win and govern, but ERC won and did not govern. "Three and a half years as a councilor in the opposition (the Consistory changed to the Government three months ago) give you a lot of time to think." Reflections and visions that he captures in La ciutat dissatisfied. All that Barcelona could become, in which he addresses everything from superblocks to mobility, the ambition of the people of Barcelona and the challenges of a city wedged between the mountains and the sea and that the airport of the future must already think about.
Is it necessary to expand El Prat?
The airport does not need to be bigger, it is one of the busiest in Europe. The problem is not expansion, nor more capacity, because we can divert traffic to Reus and Girona. The problem is to support long-distance flights, those that go to the western coast of America and the eastern coast of Asia. If Barcelona wants to be a first class city, it has to connect with the Pacific. That requires a long track, and lengthening the sea track is a temporary solution. It is necessary to decide which is the airport that has to relieve El Prat.
Why do you say that Barcelona is an unsatisfied city?
I am from Barcelona by adoption and I hear about the decline of Barcelona even before I was born. The depression of Barcelona is a state of its own for the people of Barcelona. The city aspires to more than it can, which is why I quote Vicenç Vives, who said that in the 19th century the Catalans made an object beyond their human possibilities: Barcelona.
And the city is in decline?
We are not a decadent city because we are a dissatisfied city. A decadent city is a satisfied city installed in complacency. But when you are restless because you do not arrive, because you cannot or because you would like more, you are not decadent, you are fighting. You want to be like Madrid without having its conditions.
Madrid has a high-speed network and one of the largest airports in Europe...
Madrid has what being a capital and magnificent connectivity provides. Instead, we want to emulate Madrid, and before Paris, and always something that is above us. As long as we do, we'll stick our tongue out but we'll move forward.
Is mobility now the main challenge for cities?
It is a key issue, for several reasons. First, the city's connectivity with the exterior. You have to have high-speed trains and airports. And then, one of the problems of all the cities that play in the first division is the price of housing. The only way to lower prices is by offering more housing and in Barcelona you cannot build more. It is one of the densest cities and has to be metropolized. It needs an efficient metro, efficient Rodalies and efficient regional trains to reach more territory. So little has been invested in Rodalies in recent years that we now have a big problem.
And inside the city?
The city is so dense that there is little space on the street. We need to take out cars more than anyone, more than Berlin, more than Milan... because we have little space. And if we want to succeed in the new economy, which is an urban economy, we also need most of Catalonia to be very well connected to Barcelona, to function as a single city.
And who has to lead?
It is a very complicated issue that is raised everywhere and no one solves it. We will never see a true metropolitan government in Catalonia, because it is not accepted politically. The metropolitan mayor of Barcelona is the Government of the Generalitat.
It says in the book that in Bilbao the salary is 8% higher and housing is 25% cheaper than in Barcelona...
Bilbao has had less immigration. Barcelona's growth model has been largely oriented towards tourism, which has created many low-skilled jobs that have been a magnet for immigration. The other growth vector for Barcelona has been technology and science, which has also attracted the population, and this increases the pressure. In Bizkaia it has not happened.
Do the implementation of bike lanes, superblocks or the tram... have a reverse gear?
The tram was a bad idea because it is a rigid medium, an electric bus would have been better... but if you already have the TramBaix and the TramBesós, connecting them is inevitable. That there are few vehicles on the street is irreversible. It is not a matter of political color, because a Francoist mayor, Enric Masó, began to do it in the Portal de l'Àngel. The substitute for the car is not the scooter, there are more kilometers of metro, a third tunnel for Rodalies and more regional. Meanwhile, Low Emission Zones and what Masó did. He said that pedestrianization was a matter of trial and error. It is now called tactical urbanism.
