Yesterday, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) removed from the Tourist Bus website the passage that encouraged its users to approach the bunkers in the Carmel neighborhood and enjoy its wonderful views of Barcelona. The truth is that it was not as easy as one might have expected.
In the other term, with the common Ada Colau as mayor and the socialist Rosa Alarcón as councilor of Horta-Guinardó, to stop the tourist overcrowding that is embittering the daily life of so many residents on this side of the city, the City Council was marked as The objective is to eliminate, as far as possible, the promotion of this privileged viewpoint in so many tourist guides. But last year, residents of the area reported that the Tourist Bus website continued to promote this privileged viewpoint. This is a publication managed by TMB, Barcelona Turisme and the company that manages this service in some 80 cities around the world, from Bangkok to Los Angeles. And this Monday La Vanguardia detailed that nothing had changed, that the website in question continued to promote Turó de la Rovira. “If you enter the Carmel neighborhood – one could read in the paragraphs dedicated to the blue route of this bus – you will discover the remains of an anti-aircraft battery from the Civil War that offers spectacular views over Barcelona.”
This time the president of TMB and also deputy mayor of Urban Planning, the socialist Laia Bonet, ordered the references deleted shortly after being asked about them. "From the City Council and TMB we are working to reduce the promotion of this space," she later stressed, "a fundamental measure to avoid tourist overcrowding and reduce the pressure that a high influx of visitors to the bunkers poses for the surrounding residents."
The neighbors, however, are somewhat hopeless. This weekend it became clear that the influx of visitors to this place will only multiply in the coming weeks. Furthermore, this newspaper also confirmed this weekend that the attention of the Urban Police these days has nothing to do with that of a year ago, that tourists are once again climbing on the ledges to take the most spectacular selfies, that the People keep coming up well equipped with drinks, and the street vendors selling beer cans have also returned...
“We are already in summer time – the neighborhood organizations report – and the viewpoint closes at seven thirty in the afternoon instead of five. But people continue the party around the mountain. We want the City Council to establish fences that protect the homes in the area. The other day a neighbor's laundry was stolen. Rubble and debris also fall on us. In addition, we once again suffer from lack of access control. The regular buses load again with visitors. We also suffer again from traffic jams of taxis and Uber, Cabify and rented cars on streets where it is assumed that only neighbors can enter, one of the bollards installed to regulate this traffic has been broken for months, the operators in charge only come for a few hours... So we are thinking about organizing a few protests now.”
