“We have to end this hole once and for all& rdquor ;, repeat over and over again the residents of the neighborhood of Vallcarca and the Penitents of Barcelonain the north of the district of Gràcia. Unravel the reform that never arrived in this area It is a claim that they have been dragging along for years, and part of the pending duties for the next municipal government. “It’s all to do“, rightly affirm its inhabitants. And it is that today you can still see the traces of a project that started at half speed and destroyed what it could to later paralyze and give way to years of emptiness.
The great idea with which it all began was to build a large green boulevard. A project that was approved in the year 2002 during the mandate of Joan Clos and which consisted of a landscaped axis that was going to extend along Avenida de Vallcarca from the Lesseps square to the viaduct. To materialize it, from the year 2008 they began to break down numerous constructions. A “urbanicide” -as some residents and neighborhood organizations call it- that took away numerous buildings, but as a result of the real estate crisis it stopped dead. One of the farms affected was The White House, a historic ‘meublé’ that had to disappear, in theory, for a “good cause& rdquor;. Now, in this space there is neither furtive sex nor green promenade: just a depressing square, not very attractive and usually deserted.
The years passed and the pending issue of the green boulevard was changing hands and political color: Jordi Hereu (PSC), Xavier Trias (CiU) and Ada Colau (Bcomú). Meanwhile, the neighborhood has been divided between those who want the 2002 project to be carried out at once -as planned, demolition included- and those who prefer to take advantage of the remaining spaces to make green areas and beat it. space for cars, without tearing down any other houses. The lack of consensus makes the reform continue to stop, although the president of the Vallcarca Som Barri neighborhood association, Jordi Arolaconsiders that this is nothing more than the result of the “neglect of all political forces& rdquor ;, that “they hide behind the rivalry between neighboring entities & rdquor; to continue his inaction.
fear of speculation
In the midst of this situation of paralysis, since 2014 the neighbors began to organize and gather proposals for rebuild the neighborhood to suit you through various participatory processes. One of the issues that have been discussed the most in them is that of the living place.
Several of the solar that have been left empty in Vallcarca are owned by the construction company Nunez and Navarro. After years of neglect, neighborhood groups have come to occupy them with urban gardenspetanque courts and, also, barracks settlements. Faced with the possibility of building on these lands, some neighborhood organizations ask that two important factors be taken into account: provide a solution to the people who now live poorly on these plots and that the new apartments are economically accessible for the inhabitants of Vallcarca .
“The city council has not yet given a solution to offer a decent housing to the people living in the settlements. Their children are in school in the neighborhood, they are part of this community. What happens with these low incomes that will hardly have access to housing?”, expresses Marina Sanahújamember of the Voltes architecture cooperative.
Beyond the fate of the settlements, the neighborhood is very concerned about the real estate speculation with future constructions on free lots: “If the price of housing is not regulated and limited, we will have to leave the neighborhood and a new economic class with a much higher purchasing power will replace us& rdquor ;, criticizes Sanahuja. For this reason, they have spent years negotiating with the council and with the construction company to ensure that a part of the future apartments is shielded with regulated rentsand that the new buildings meet height requirements in accordance with the character of the neighborhood.
“What we will not do is give away the neighborhood to anyone who comes to pay more”
Marina Sanahúja
“We have the opportunity to do things differentlybecause everything is to be done. What we will not do is give away the neighborhood to anyone who comes to pay more and that we have to leave & rdquor ;, claims the spokeswoman. And she warns: “The private ones have to understand that Vallcarca cannot suffer the same speculative logic than the rest of the city, with everything this neighborhood has suffered& rdquor ;.
The future Central Park
In 2017, the city council convened an international ideas competition to unravel another parallel project: the central park from Vallcarca. The winning proposal of the contest was called ‘arrels‘, of the architect carles enrich. However, certain neighborhood entities did not agree with it either, so new participation days were organized that culminated in a neighborhood authorship document, which includes improvements to be incorporated into the contest-winning idea. In this document, one of the key points is the self-managed orchards, an initiative already consolidated in the neighborhood and that they want to preserve. “In Vallcarca there are 1,700 square meters of self-managed orchards, apart from those of the town hall,” Sanahuja says.
Now that this participatory process has ended, the drafting of the executive project to later start the plays that will make this Parc Central a reality. Asked about deadlines and dates, the councilor of the district of Gràcia, eloi badiahas not ventured to make any calendar forecast.
Badia denies the neighborhood thesis and maintains that in Vallcarca it is “where more things have been done” throughout this tenure. “There is no other neighborhood in Gràcia with so many performances& rdquor ;, he has stated in statements to this newspaper. Some of the most notable works are new public housing developments, the Can Carol neighborhood mansion and the new bike lane on Vallcarca avenue. Actions that the neighbors say “recognize and thank”, but that they attribute to the fact that “Vallcarca was like a blank page”. Along the same lines, Arola believes that equally “they have to be blamed” current and former politicians the little political decision to “definitely consolidate the house, make green areas and put an end to the hole that they created in this area& rdquor ;.
The pressure of Park Güell
Beyond the non-reform, Vallcarca i els Penitents has another great historical demand: to mitigate the effects of living with a Gaudí mega tourist attraction. “We are a neighborhood in the shadow of Park Güell”, asserts Arola. Because of the huge number of visitors it receives, the neighborhood denounces that it lives a “saturation in the streets and in public transport”.
This problem also affects tradesince in certain areas of the neighborhood “a type of store dedicated to tourism is imposed& rdquor; that is, premises of ‘souvenirs‘ that do not cover the daily needs of the neighbors. Likewise, the pressure of the visitors is noticeable in the living place: “We have a great index of accommodation dedicated to tourismand that makes the rent more expensive of the rooms and houses & rdquor ;, laments Arola.
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“We don’t want the whole neighborhood to revolve around Park Güell. The pressure is very great and if this goes ahead, we will have to leave because there will be a process of gentrification important & rdquor ;, Sanahuja insists, taking into account what has already happened in other tourist areas of the city.
In order to reduce the tourist pressure of the park, after the pandemic the Barcelona’s town hall decided to expand the paid space in Park Güell. With this strategy, the number of visitors has gone from 9 million annually to 4.65 million in 2022. This reductionalthough considerable, is insufficient in the eyes of the residents, who remember that this figure is equivalent to receiving more than 12,700 daily visitors, which also tend to be concentrated on weekends and holidays. “It’s insufferable& rdquor ;, they say. An added challenge for Vallcarca, which will worsen the next term with the definitive recovery of post-Covid tourism.