The last two surveys presented by Barcelona City Council confirm that insecurity is, by a wide margin and for many years, the city's number one problem, according to the perception of its inhabitants. This is certified by both the municipal barometer taken just after the May 28 elections and the macro-survey of municipal services. The fine print of this survey also confirms that in more than 60% of Barcelona's neighborhoods, public insecurity is the problem that most worries residents.
The service survey divides the city for statistical purposes into 39 large neighborhoods, instead of the 73 neighborhoods that make up the municipality administratively. Regarding what they consider to be the most serious problem in the immediate environment of their place of residence, in 24 of these 39 territories the answer is the same: lack of security. One more fact that must be taken into account by the municipal and regional leaders of this area, who will meet today, for the first time, under the presidency of Mayor Jaume Collboni, in the local security board.
The Council's survey indicates the extent to which the lack of safety in the streets, objective or subjective, is perceived as the main problem in the neighbourhood. This feeling is particularly strong in the Ciutat Vella district and, specifically, in the neighborhoods of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and la Ribera, where no less than 58.5% of those interviewed mention the latter as the most urgent problem, or Barceloneta, where it appears in first place by 42.6% of residents.
The above are extreme cases, but the truth is that, taking into account the results of this survey - the most complete of all that the City Council commissions -, very diverse territories share the same opinion, from Poble Sec to Pedralbes . In the higher-income neighbourhood, 35.4% of residents consider that there is no more serious problem in the streets - and in homes - than the lack of security.
If a problem can compete with that of insecurity, it is that of the lack of cleanliness of public space, a competence, yes, reserved for the local administration and its administrators. In 12 of these 39 neighborhoods, this is, according to the neighbors, the most disturbing problem. In addition, dirt appears in 13 more cases as the second problem in the neighborhood, and in six as the third.
In this map of the evils of Barcelona in 2023, stained almost completely by insecurity and dirt, we can see some neighborhoods, very few, that break the norm. In the Sagrada Família, what bothers residents the most is overcrowding, mentioned as the worst by 22.3% of respondents. In l'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample, an area of high traffic density and, for some time, with an excessive supply of bars, terraces, tourist flats and nightlife venues, the biggest concern is noise . And in the Dreta de l'Eixample, where some of the actions of the green axes and the tram connection work are concentrated, it is not surprising that the main problem of the neighborhood is, according to the neighbors, the works.
