The Bank of Spain estimates that 600,000 more homes are needed in the short term, without taking into account that in the short term we only build elections. The problem is worsening in Madrid and Barcelona. And if there are so many floors missing, I don’t even want to think about how high the shortage of riding arenas must be.
Are we going to bequeath to our children and grandchildren a Barcelona without Snowflake, without white scarves at the Camp Nou and without riding rings?
I, modesty aside, was an entrepreneur in this riding school business, highly sought after during the transition. Far from leaving an unoccupied family apartment closed, I understood that there was a social responsibility. My friend Josep, a partner in the adventure, provided the business vision and every Sunday afternoon we rented the house to two football buddies with their respective girlfriends – the values ??of the sport! – for an exorbitant amount that, however, they paid without complain The bad thing is that we do not reinvest the profits from such a restful business and we polish them in the summer of the Balearic Islands…
Long before Ikea and the savant Marie Kondo, the Barcelona riding schools were an example of avant-garde (not so their users, things as they are): functional furniture, no shelves with books, no alienating television, absence of Toledo swords …
The modernity of those riding arenas, often studios, went beyond aesthetics. Before coworking, coliving and collirium, tenants or even owners improvised cooperative, hierarchical or flexible formulas, to make the space profitable, it was even the case that the apartments combined liberal jobs with liberal licenses, so that Barcelona was a party , and its riding arenas, a fruitful example of the county’s dynamism.
Because of the applications, the flexibility of the hotel industry, the divorce law and the real estate deficit, Barcelona’s riding arenas are scarce or have simply passed away. Or not…
Perhaps those who have passed away are its users, intrepid captains of free and uncompromising love.