One of the major tasks that the new mayor of Barcelona has from now on is to rebuild alliances with civil society that, in recent years, have suffered a deterioration as a result of the polarization of attitudes in favor of and against the policies driven by Ada Colau. La Vanguardia wanted to promote the aspirations of a wide range of representative entities of the city, more than twenty. The variety of demands on the new government highlights the extreme difficulty of marrying very often conflicting interests. The success or failure of the “new stage” for Barcelona that he himself has announced will depend on the ability of Jaume Collboni and his team to find a formula that reasonably satisfies a social majority.
ASS. GRACE WALK
A new public space
Luis Sans, from the merchants on Passeig de Gràcia, believes that one of the new mayor’s biggest challenges is to recover public space. “We are talking about the withdrawal of the New Jersey, the elimination of the blanket top, the improvement of security”. Sans also asks Collboni not to forget accessibility from the metropolitan area, international promotion, improving the airport…
PROMOTION OF WORK
Facilitate the economy
According to the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, it is necessary to “reverse the planning of the super-blocks and other maximalist approaches and made without consensus”. And specifically: “To refer to the idea of ??the Via Laietana or the ordeal that the Via Augusta has become with the bike lane”. It also proposes “facilitating commercial and hotel activity and the attraction and maintenance of talent”, and “a clear and flexible regulation for the business sector, with legal certainty and without sudden legislative changes”.
PIMEC
Prioritize competitiveness
This employer is asking the executive to pay more attention to very small companies, to micro-SMEs. “And also – says Antonio Cañete, president of Pimec – put competitiveness at the center of economic decisions and prioritize active policies over passive ones in the labor market”. In addition, Pimec calls for more aid for the self-employed to cope with the energy transition.
BARCELONA GLOBAL
Less speed and stress
The president of Barcelona Global, Maite Barrera, asks the mayor to think big, in the long term, and to have ambition to promote a leading, global, prosperous, sustainable and inclusive Barcelona. Let him bet on the Barcelona of knowledge and impact talent. That it accelerates the arrival of new medical and scientific research centers, and positions the city as a higher education hub. Position the city to attract investments and high-value projects in strategic sectors.
UGT
Bet for the industry
The new mayor “must create a balanced model of economic and social growth with a clear commitment to industry”, according to the general secretary of the UGT de Catalunya, Camil Ros. It also proposes “tourism and services that generate quality work”.
CC. YES.
City to live and work
“Collboni must make Barcelona a city to live and work”, defends Javier Pacheco, general secretary of CC.OO. of Catalonia. This means “promoting public housing policies and regulating the real estate market”, as well as “reindustrializing the city with sustainable industry and encouraging employment policies with decent jobs”. Finally, “more investment in green mobility, especially public transport”. And “social dialogue”.
BARCELONA OPEN
Retrieve the dialog
First of all, says Gabriel Jené, from Barcelona Open, the main commercial hubs of the city, “it is necessary to recover the dialogue with the mayor’s office, which had disappeared”. And based on this new relationship, review mobility in the Eixample and its surroundings, slow down the implementation of new superblocks and green axes, update the plans for more central uses, prevent the connection of the tram…
FAVB
Less speed and stress
Juan Camilo Ros, president of the FAVB, defends “increasing the stock of public rental housing to prevent young people from leaving and for people in a vulnerable situation”, and a “territorial rebalancing to combat inequality social in the neighborhoods”. Also a “change in the city model, which does not disregard the importance of economic factors but affects more satisfactory parameters for the physical and mental health of citizens: less speed and stress, taking care of solidarity and meetings”.
FRIENDS OF THE RAMBLA
Improve coexistence
Fermín Villar, from the Amics de la Rambla merchant association, wants the new mayor to improve coexistence in Ciutat Vella, to stop crime and also to put order in many legal activities whose breaches worsen the quality of life of people, such as more terraces than permits or shared bikes that park anywhere.
EXAMPLE BREATHE
Fight pollution
From Eixample Respira, Genís Domínguez calls for solutions “to the serious public health crisis we are suffering in the city due to the high levels of air pollution and excessive noise levels; urgent measures that comply with state and European legislation regarding maximum pollution in the Eixample, and that a plan be established in order to move decisively closer to the recommendations of the WHO”.
ELITE TAXI
The end of bad practices
Taxi drivers want the new government to put an end to bad practices in their sector. “We want them to act against the taxi drivers who give us a bad image, who deceive tourists, who charge what they want -says Alberto Álvarez, alias Tito, of Élite Taxi-, and also to improve our app, to be competitive, and that they are more attentive to the bus taxi lane, which is invaded by whoever wants to”.
BCN COMMERÇ FOUNDATION
Less paperwork and bureaucracy
Local trade requires less paperwork and more agility. “We just want them to let us work, to really believe in public-private collaboration – says Pròsper Puig, president of the Barcelona Commerce Foundation – and not to overwhelm us with bureaucracy and so many inspections. They can’t treat us like the big chains, we need positive discrimination”.
RESTORATION GUILD
New stage of dialogue
The Barcelona Restoration Guild trusts that the new mayor will open a new stage of more peaceful relations. Its director, Roger Pallarols, points out as key issues to reconsider the recently imposed time restrictions, the increase in the rate of terraces and the reform of the awarding model for beach bars, “based on the best bidder and not in quality”.
HOTELS ASSOCIATION
Controlled growth
Jordi Clos, as president of the Barcelona Hotels Guild, asks first of all that the mayor highlights tourism activity in the city, that he practices dialogue with the sector and that he participates in the decisions they have to do with tourism. It also calls for controlled hotel growth to be promoted through the promotion of unique projects, for example in the city centre.
APARTMENT
Complicity with tourism
Enrique Alcántara, representative of legal tourist apartments, calls for a complicit administration, a City Council that does not criminalize tourism. “We want uncomplicated support. For eight years they have been blaming tourism for all the ills of the city.” He also asks that the tourist tax be cheaper and that it be abolished in the low season.
CRUISE LINES
Public-private collaboration
The director of the International Association of Cruise Lines (CLIA) in Spain, Alfredo Serrano, asks Jaume Collboni to approach cruise tourism as a sector that brings economic activity and generates employment and social progress. Make it his maxim that public-private collaboration is essential to enhance positive externalities and seek solutions to the negative externalities that – like any other activity – generates. It is time to draw up a medium and long-term roadmap that meets the needs of residents and visitors and has economic, social and environmental sustainability as its banner.
UNION OF TENANTS
Regulate and monitor rent
“It is necessary to regulate the rental market with determination so that the housing law does not remain on wet paper, ensuring compliance and bringing order”, according to Jaime Palomera, housing expert and member of the Tenants’ Union. This means “preventing abusive increases in the residential market, and that there is no deviation from the supply in the tourist or temporary rental market”. Likewise, he defends “betting decisively on the policy of making public housing for rent, in perpetuity”.
COL. ARCHITECTS
Streamline and unify criteria
The dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia, Guillem Costa Calsamiglia, asks the new mayor for four key issues for the profession and the public: speed up building permits; unify the criteria of the rules; reduce the administrative requirements for projects, and improve the system of architectural and urban planning competitions. Priorities must be defined and political action must be taken: with a calendar and with a budget. “We offer to help. Good architecture, efficient buildings and public space are our and the administrations’ duty to society”, says the dean.
COL. ROAD ENGINEERING
Airport and Surroundings
The engineers claim to go beyond the municipal limits and have a “leadership vocation for the metropolitan region, Catalonia and beyond”, according to the dean of the College of Road Engineering, Pere Calvet, who asks the municipal government for leadership in boost of pending infrastructures. This entails, according to the dean, prioritizing “an airport model that allows more long-range flights to be incorporated; to increase the capacity and improve the governance of Rodalies, and to strengthen rail connectivity with the Mediterranean arc and the south of France through high speed”.
RACC
More intercity rail
The RACC considers it essential to adopt a metropolitan vision and management in mobility. Its priority should be to “accelerate and improve the intercity railway offer so that users can access the city by train”, emphasizes its president, Josep Mateu, referring to Rodalies, the FGC and even the metro. The entity urges solving traffic congestion and acting to improve air quality by reducing vehicle emissions and encouraging shared mobility and intermodality.
PTP
Tram and bus priority
The completion of the works on the tram along the Diagonal has been one of the reasons for the most dispute in the electoral campaign and it is precisely the main demand of the association for the promotion of public transport (PTP). Its president, Adrià Ramírez, asks the new government to “take a long view to face strategic challenges of the future of mobility such as the construction of bus terminals and the tram along the Gran Via”. The organization also calls for prioritizing the bus and ordering the parking of motorbikes on the road.
BICYCLE CLUB (BACC)
Decided bet on the bike
The organization representing urban cycling urges the new government to “believe in bike mobility” and give this means of transport the same consideration as cars or motorbikes in municipal mobility policies. “Cycle lanes are very good, but with a mayor who believes that the bicycle fee will never exceed 4%, we are putting a false ceiling on ourselves,” laments the BACC, one of the organizations favoring the creation of an urban entrance toll in Barcelona, ??a truly metropolitan Bicing and the extension of the secure Bicibox car parks.
THIRD SECTOR TABLE
Against hate speech
A priority of the Board is housing. “It is essential to know how the municipal government will take advantage of the entry into force of the new state law, what measures it will promote to increase the public park and what alternatives it will offer to the evicted families”, emphasizes the president of the Board, Francina Alsina. He also asks the mayor to create “a common front against the extreme right, which wants to cut social rights; it is undeniable that we are in a moment of serious threat of loss of liberties and the rise of hate speech”.
ROOTS
Home for people
roofless
Arrels asks Collboni to invest in public housing and in specific flats for homeless people. “We believe it is necessary to modify the regulations of the Emergency Board so that homeless citizens have the right to access a home through this channel”, proposes the director of Arrels, Ferran Busquets. And he claims to open small spaces in the neighborhoods so that hundreds of people stop sleeping on the ground.
CHARITIES
15% social rent
For Salvador Busquets, director of Càritas Barcelona, ??the priority is also housing. “More than 700 families are on the waiting list at the Emergency Table. That’s why it’s important to expand the social rental pool and to increase it from the current 1.9% to 15%, a figure that would equal the European average”, he says. “People in the Barcelona area spend more than 60% of their salary on rent. If this problem is not addressed, social policies will hardly be effective in reducing inequalities”, he underlines.
