The fight against incivility and the care of public space are already the main priorities of Mayor Jaume Collboni's government for this mandate. The deputy mayors for Urbanism and Security, Laia Bonet and Albert Batlle, announced yesterday that the Endreça plan is no longer an emergency and shock measure to become the new way of proceeding from the City Council of Barcelona
The local executive plans to invest nearly 435 million euros in these issues over the next four years. And another piece of data that illustrates, at least in a symbolic way, the determination of the Collboni executive results from the sum of all the items in his budget proposal for next year labeled the Endreça plan , which gives no less than 550 million.
The City Council will no longer wait for the elements of street furniture to stop fulfilling their function, but will change them before they reach the foreseeable end of their useful life. We are talking about traffic lights, bins, benches... Last week the City Council already announced the renovation of all the bins in Ciutat Vella. The reference is those campaigns of previous socialist governments, such as that of "Barcelona, pose't guapa".
In addition, conduct that disturbs public coexistence will be attacked more than ever. Bonet and Batlle trust that the new civics ordinance will enter into force next year, which can be initially approved during the first semester of 2024. This issue, however, the reform of the civics ordinance, it seems much more prickly, fuzzy and uncertain.
The main opposition groups are not ready to make things easy for the socialist executive. Any support will be very expensive. This is proven by the staged rejection last week of Junts, BComú, ERC, PP and Vox to the fiscal ordinances and municipal budgets proposed by the Socialists.
Above all, Junts and BComú want to assume governance responsibilities, to demonstrate to Mayor Collboni that Barcelona cannot govern itself with only ten councillors. The reform of the civics ordinance can easily get muddied. And the care of public space, on the other hand, constitutes an area of the local administration, a kind of tailor's drawer that depends more on the political will of the mayor than on his ability to reach agreements with the opposition groups.
The image of municipal workers erasing graffiti with rollers will become more and more frequent. Yes, the Endreça plan has not yet managed to get the pintalentres to put down their attitude, but it did undermine to a certain extent the fatalism prevailing around such a mess. At least lately they delete a lot, apparently more than before. One of the complaints of Ada Colau's government was the public impression that Barcelona was not taken care of.
Mayor Collboni is very concerned about suffering similar wear and tear. It will also be common, as has been the case in recent months, to find a van from the Urban Guard next to the Museum of the History of Catalonia, next to the Moll de la Fusta, to stop buskers, bike taxi drivers, women who braid tourists ... But the truth is that it seems much more complicated that Barcelona will soon have a new rule against incivility.
All municipal groups understand that the city has long needed another coexistence ordinance. But the negotiations are not exactly moving at a breakneck pace. Batlle, the Deputy Mayor of Security, is clear that the aim of the new text must be to banish from the public space once and for all urination, alcohol consumption and street selling of counterfeit items, cans of beer, mojitos...
Finding consensus around the issue of pee and bottle will be relatively simple, but achieving it around street vending will be much more complicated. Commons and Republicans are much more concerned that the rule could criminalize poverty. These are fundamental questions. In her first mandate, Ada Colau commissioned Jaume Asens to reform the ordinance and they could not find a way to push it forward.
