The justice system has upset Ada Colau's urban management and ruled against her superblock project, specifically that of the green axis of Consell de Cent. The ruling orders the works to be reversed, but it seems very difficult for this to happen because the new government team led by Jaume Collboni has already announced that it will appeal and has instruments in its hand to make it unnecessary for Consell de Cent to return to its original appearance. What is clear is that the extension of this superblock model to other areas of the Eixample had already been ruled out by the current City Council and this judicial decision represents its definitive death letter.
The triumph of the promoters of the denunciation (Barcelona Oberta) has also been the failure of Ada Colau's policy of confrontation. We are not talking about the philosophy of defense of sustainability and the environment developed by the previous commons government team, which has set a line that will have to be followed. The problem is the way to impose this doctrine where the lack of dialogue ended up taking the superblock project to court. The argument of the ruling is that a modification of the General Metropolitan Plan (PGM) should have been made because the affected area was a road and not a pedestrian space. But it is the same reform that was carried out in its day on Enric Granados Street, Plaza Nova or Gaudí Avenue, but then no one filed a complaint because the City Council had agreed and dialogued with the affected sectors.
The option that Collboni promotes of taking advantage of the interior of the Eixample islands and not limiting these green axes to this neighborhood of Barcelona seems much more feasible and logical from a city perspective, where pedestrians and transport must coexist. We must not fall into the demagogic discourse that whoever is against these superblocks is in favor of “climate denialism.” There is much to do for Barcelona to improve in sustainability and Colau has left a legacy that must be maintained, but the strategy of confrontation and order and command is not the best way to do things.
