The latest traffic restrictions of the new loading and unloading system arranged by the City Council in the Gòtic a few weeks ago are triggering the desperation of many traders. We are not talking about souvenir shops, t-shirts with rude messages and marijuana paraphernalia, but pharmacies, plumbers, stationery stores, patisseries, food houses… the last local businesses on this side of the city.
“We are losing customers and suppliers – says Oriol Blasi, from the appliance store on Carrer Santa Anna Brescó i Blasi-. We opened more than a hundred years ago, but at this stage we will have to leave the center. The new measures do not allow us to attend to the plumbers in the first hour, to provide them with what they need for their works, and some are already looking for other suppliers. And our people, our suppliers, tell us that the latest restrictions are fatal for them, that we are looking for another place”.
It is one of the last measures prepared by Mayor Ada Colau’s executive. Until a few weeks ago, the City Council allowed loading and unloading at the Gòtic from eight to eleven in the morning and from three to five in the afternoon. Now, however, the service is concentrated between 9:30 and 12:30. In addition, from Monday to Saturday from seven to nine thirty and also from twelve thirty to nine at night, as well as on Sundays from six in the morning to ten at night, access by private vehicle is restricted.
“We do homemade cooking, a lot of xup-xup, and that takes time – says Julio Marín, from La Rioja restaurant, in Duran i Bas -, and with these schedules we don’t have time to make several dishes as we would like. We have to find alternatives. A Santa Caterina stop brings us the fish on foot. But these ways make everything more expensive. In order for the bills to come out, you have to have large suppliers, who are usually not close by. Our artichokes are all from the Prat. And the truth is that customers are not in favor of more price increases.”
Meanwhile, a very overwhelmed transporter says that the new system works like a funnel, and that in the end all the transporters arrive at the businesses at the same time, and that thus everyone is under a lot of stress, including the people in charge of the businesses… and that now he has to to leave because the weather has caught up with him and he has left the van badly parked on the Rambla, which on top of that they will fine him and… Yes, bakeries and cafes without an office now have a lot of difficulty serving breakfast in the early hours.
Barna Centre, the merchants’ association, asks the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni to reconsider these measures, to consider recovering the afternoon slot for loading and unloading and to establish another one from six and a half to eight and medium for the supply of fresh product.
“Thus, when the course begins, the vehicles will not cross paths with the children – insists the president of the entity, Teresa Llordes-. We’re not just talking about the inconveniences of trading. The concentration of loading and unloading weakens the streets and harms the walk, making it more unpleasant at peak hours, around twelve o’clock. Thus the pedestrianity of the neighborhood is lost. The City Council tells us that it will evaluate the situation after the summer. They are making it harder for stores that are still fighting commercial monoculture. In addition, the opening of some of the new loading and unloading spaces meant the removal of parking spaces used by residents”.
“The new system is making our service worse – complains Arturo Lasmarías, from the Lasmarías pharmacy, which is in front of the Cathedral. We had four daily supplies, so we could sell any medicine in less than two hours. Do you know how many medicines are in the Vademecum? But now I have to tell many customers to come back the next day or Monday! And send an employee to Via Laietana to look for the buckets, and the insulins are transported refrigerated! Not that anything has to happen… but this change was not necessary.”
“Is it that we are losing competitiveness – interjects Rosa Olivé, from the hundred-year-old Miret paper shop, on Carrer Petrixol – how will we compete with Amazon without the loading and unloading slot in the afternoons? Thus we cannot improve our online offer”. “All this is absurd – says Josep Maria Roig, from the historic La Colmena pastry shop -. They are changing one of the few things that worked for us, do we have to carry sacks of flour by bicycle?”.
