On Barcelona's Rambla, of the fifteen flower stalls there are, only seven are in operation. As Rajoy would write, this means that there are eight closed. Probably forever, because no one takes over. Given this scenario, councilor Jordi Rabassa proposes turning one into a public urinal. The organization Amics de la Rambla does not agree: for fear that the urinal is used in an uncivil way.
But more uncivil is that people pee in the street, as they do now. Turning those defunct flower shops into urinals sounds like a good idea to me, and I don't mean that ironically. In Barcelona –and not only on the Rambla– there is a lack of urinals. There are no vespasians like the ones our grandparents found when they went for a walk and the prostate raised the alarm. "Consumption habits have changed," says Rabassa.
Flower stalls, newsagents, telephone booths... Structures of an evolving world, to put it mildly. There are already kiosks where, in addition to newspapers, they offer you coffee, juices and ATMs, because there are areas of the city where, to find an ATM to withdraw money, you have to jog more than in Jean Bouin. All over the world, when phone booths stopped working, many letter-wounded people decided that they would be ideal to turn into book-sharing places. A few shelves and whoever wants to get rid of one leaves him and takes another, if he wishes. But they have been a failure. When people clear shelves to make room for the various Alexas they have, they leave them out on the street, on top of bins, or directly inside. The common people no longer want books. They think that if they ever need one, they will find it on the internet, but the day comes and they can't find it. In other words, don't even think of turning flower stalls into book exchangers, I know you. Better urinals, as proposed by Rabassa.
