This week we have a neighborhood assembly at the petanque, and then we will see, they say around here, around the Carmel neighborhood, with a frown. “But, come on, we will continue with the demonstrations on Friday afternoons anyway,” add others, very angry. This is not going to be like this, at all ”, they assure.
The government of Mayor Ada Colau reported yesterday that the fences of the Carmel bunkers are practically ready, that from the 2nd the Turó de la Rovira viewpoint will be closed to the public from half past seven in the afternoon until nine in the morning, and after the summer from half past five in the afternoon. So now you can say goodbye to those known in the four corners of the planet as the best sunsets in Barcelona. The fence does not seem exactly impassable, but the special device of the Urban Police will be very attentive.
The truth is that this municipal measure aimed at putting an end to the tremendous crowds of tourists that for years have generated a lot of daily problems every day more intestines on this side of Barcelona are unleashing the indignation of a large part of the residents of these very steep streets. Many feel that the City Council's initiative does nothing more than finish off their expulsion from a place that they still feel is their own.
And some believe that we are facing another manifestation of a city problem and that everyone should unite with the residents of other affected areas in order to deal with a mass tourism that this summer could reach levels never seen before in Barcelona; and others, that it is not convenient to get lost among chimerical anti-system objectives and that the best thing to do is to focus on the neighborhood and its affairs, on trying to recover some bunkers taken many years ago.
The councilor responsible for the Horta Guinardó district, the socialist Rosa Alarcón, explained that it is a medium-term measure to transform the uses of space, to attract a public more interested in the history of this enclave than in the revelry at dusk . But these changes do not happen overnight. The mayor recalled that the bunker fencing began to be designed in 2019, but that the pandemic and some problems with the tender delayed its implementation. Municipal technicians will install a few informative posters these days. And the special device of the Urban Police will pay attention so that the crowds of foreigners and especially their partying do not spread around the surroundings. "Tourism is beneficial, but it must be governed," the mayor added. Weeks ago we put an end to illegal parties. Step by Step".
“The City Council assures that some entities in the neighborhood are in favor of the fence,” says Montse Montero, from the Carmel neighborhood association, “but most of the people are against it, and this will be seen as the news breaks. run around the neighborhood We are not against tourists, at least not all of them. What happens is that many residents feel that the mass of visitors snatched something that belonged to them, their bunkers. Years ago we warned that Carmel was not prepared for the arrival of so many tourists, and they never did anything to prepare it. And now they go and close the bunkers? It may already be too late."
"It's that we go up there and all we need is for them to throw peanuts at us," adds annoyed Fran Bernal, from the Turó de la Rovira Veïnal Council. Look, a lot of people from the surrounding area always came here to be with the bride, with their friends, to hang out, look for snails, pick prickly pears, have a Xibeca... and people also came to do other more questionable things, to We are going to fool ourselves, but all this and the viewpoint were part of the life of the Carmel neighborhood. Until it began to disappear, little by little, as the place became fashionable for this and that. And in the pandemic, people took advantage of and recovered the viewpoint, and they brought the kids back to the bunkers, after years without coming close. But that was a very brief mirage. Yes, the decentralization of tourism was started by Mayor Trias, but the common and socialist governments have been doing nothing for eight years! and now they close our bunkers... People are not going to take it well. But this is not a problem exclusively for Carmel, but for the city of Barcelona. What is happening here is a big demonstration”, laments this neighborhood representative.
