“Can anyone imagine a fence placed in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus or the Duomo in Milan to segregate tourists?” Pay to walk. What’s more, “can you imagine that they charge a premium for entering the Puerta del Sol on the night of the grapes?” The mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz (PP), must have imagined it when he proposed charging to enjoy the Plaza de España. The “freedom” of Madrid has a price in Seville.
It is not that there are avalanches, nor excess of interest: the Junta de Andalucía did not grant the square the status of an asset of cultural interest until last year… The city receives three million tourists a year; Madrid 9.8 million; Barcelona, ??8.2… It is far from the 30 million of Venice, which will charge five euros to lightning visitors to the city. The Venice toll is the full version of the tourist tax for Barcelona, ??Girona, Tarragona, Palma, Ibiza, Menorca…
Can you be against the tourist tax and in favor of charging for entry to a public space? The mayor justifies his idea: to finance the conservation of the square, built in 1929; maintain a 24-hour security service and open a catering school. In X it doesn’t fit.
The debate is not new. More than ten years ago Barcelona began charging eight euros to enter Park Güell. Paying to enter a public park! The objective was to demassify the area, it has rationalized visits… and dissuaded Barcelona residents, who have already fled free spaces such as the Rambla, Passeig de Gràcia, the Sagrada Família, the Port Olímpic… It adds up and goes on.
The Twitter sentiment is summarized in: “The PPrivatizing the PPublic Squares.” The jurist @jpuria intervenes without many laws against the measure: “When the right wing catheta arrives in a city, he manages it like a company. Just think about charging for everything. They don’t like the idea of ??public. They privatize the sidewalks for terraces and now they even charge for walking.”
Walking in Seville is no longer a marvel. “Let’s see if I get the first one and I can go,” the networks mock. @luzsmellado raises the catastrophism: “Let’s close public squares to outsiders. Let’s put security guards on the turnstiles and cute and prohibitive terraces for the use and enjoyment of those who can pay for them. Let’s all go to hell.”
The Andalusian PSOE is determined to prevent, from the Government, the “privatisation” of the square. And @carlosmarmol_es opens another melon: “Already, include the Cathedral’s Orange Tree Courtyard, which was always a public space until the Holy Mother Church decided to keep it and charge for access to it.” Amen.
