A woman passes by a neighborhood garden arranged in a corner of the recently pedestrianized Consell de Cent street and with an expression of exaggerated disgust she blurts out that she is fed up with Ada Colau's crap. “This is a city,” she says angrily to her companion, “and not the damn countryside.” “And now they fill everything with clowns,” the man replies, “so that we like their crap more.”
And walking through the new superblock, one wonders how long the former mayor will be considered guilty of all the evils, and how many people interpret everything that happens as the product of a conspiracy, and how many still do not know that Jaume Colllboni is the new mayor. . In many parts of the city these transitions require more time than many think.
The truth is that the inclusion of the section of Consell de Cent between Entença and Borrell among the stages of these Mercè festivities was not an idea of the former mayor in order to feed citizen affection towards the work of her most important government. The final decision did not respond to a political maneuver aimed at conveying neighborhood feelings towards certain forms of urban planning.
In fact, as La Vanguardia learned by chance, the idea in question came from the municipal technicians, on paper, with the machines still raising dust in each chamfer, back in the spring, perhaps before. "The idea was to provide the stages of Joan Miró's park with an appendix that would invite people to walk, with early performances, without schedules, without a program, giving special prominence to the small squares of the new axis."
And the Colau executive approved first the idea, and then the programmatic proposal also presented by the technicians. After the unexpected proclamation of him as mayor, the socialist Collboni found all the fish sold. “Everything has to be closed six or seven months before. What the new mayor could do was choose the town crier.”
And this side of the Eixample, traditionally accustomed to monotony and lately so mixed, once again presents a new appearance, that of a neighborhood superblock. Because in recent weeks it has truly become a city attraction, filled every weekend with tourists and residents from many neighborhoods interested in such a controversial transformation. But these days there are so many things to do in Barcelona that Consell de Cent is especially full of local people. And suddenly you do feel a real neighborhood atmosphere, at times even oblivious to so much time on the front line of Barcelona news. Between clowns, tightrope walkers and other comedians.
But a sign calls for neighbors to hold an assembly next weekend with the aim of weaving strategies to avoid compliance with the ruling ordering to reverse the transformation of this road.
Furthermore, the most combative banners continue to hang from the façade of Casa Orsola. A few tenants refuse to leave the property, demanding that the new owners of the property renew their rental contracts. The new owners want to renovate the homes and rent them out as high-end apartments. This conflict has already become a symbol of gentrification. Surely more than one will use these extremes in an interested way. The Consell de Cent circus will present new performances very soon.
