Earlier this summer, in this very blog, I wrote an open letter to the mayor of Barcelona in which I politely asked him why my neighborhood of El Raval does not receive the same level of attention as other neighborhoods when it comes to care and manintenance. Then, a month later, I was amazed to discover that one of the many examples of carelessness and lack of maintenance that I cited –an abandoned “designer planter” devoid of plants that had become a garbage dump– had been removed! This satisfied me enormously, of course, but especially also it means that this blog seems to be taken seriously at City Hall …unless this was a veeery unusual coincidence, of course.
Nevertheless, was removing the planter really the best solution? Wouldn’t it have been better to merely clean it up and replant some vegetation in it instead? Although removal is better than doing absolutely nothing, it seems like a bit of a cop-out, since it is in fact illegal to dispose of garbage in the street (it has to be sorted and deposited in appropriate bins). Why not simply enforce the law instead? Alas, the decision was made to remove that planter; out of sight, out of mind. I hope it is at least being re-used elsewhere in the city, since it is quite cleverly designed.
This is not the first time that a text of mine has seemingly led to change in Barcelona. Years ago, when I was a columnist at the free cultural newspaper BCN MES, I wrote (in Spanish) about a busy commercial street in El Raval that was continuously clogged with traffic and whose residential side streets were used as garbage dumps by all the shops. Within a few years it was pedestrianized and significantly improved, as documented here.
In other cases, such as the fight against the rezoning of Plaça dels Àngels, this blog has not been succcesful, at least for now. But to taste at least some success is inspiring, and encourages me to keep on keepin’ on.
Criticalista 