Xavier Rius, 70 years old, retired teacher, from the Esquerra del Eixample neighborhood association, exudes enthusiasm. “We are delighted with the green axis of Carrer Consell de Cent. Before the children went to school with their parents and now many go in groups! The parents are no longer so afraid to leave them… And the neighbors meet again in the street. The axis is our Rambla, so pleasant that people detour to go here wherever they go, even if it takes longer. So you end up matching a lot of people. I live by the Joan Miró Park, and around here everything is very neighborhood. There are more tourists on the other side. Even the kiosk, which was against it, is very happy.” Despite everything, Rius also has some buts… “It’s that the maintenance is not adequate, and many do what they want with the bike, the car, the van… Many elderly people are not at ease. But we hope that the City Council will take measures, that it will not allow all this to be lost”.
The green areas of Consell de Cent and surroundings are these days in their first year surrounded by restlessness. This road once became a neighborhood meeting point. But the details involved in its remodeling hinder its success as a citizen. Neighbors and merchants are asking for the adjustment of the large supervilla in the Eixample. And they don’t understand municipal nonsense.
“More than green, marengo gray”
Joan Spin
“It’s not very green – laments Joan Spin, a pioneering entrepreneur in Gaixample, who owns three businesses in the area. Rather flywing marengo grey. They left four plants with some wires on the sides that are outrageous that they are broken. Everything is very abandoned. Trash cans are missing, picnic tables are full of trash, dumpsters are in the middle of the street, between patios and delivery vans, because they removed the chamfers! And bikes, cars and scooters also go where they want, couldn’t they put bollards? And I live in Mallorca, and over there the cars continue to drive by at full speed. They go slower in Valencia, because it gets jammed. If what they wanted was to remove cars from the center, they have not succeeded. They should have performed in more streets.”
“We don’t understand the
Jaume Artigues
“Most residents believe that the project does not need major changes – intervenes Jaume Artigues, from the Dreta del Eixample neighborhood association. These actions need a period of adaptation and a pedagogical task, to adjust their operation and for people to learn to behave. But nothing has been done here in the last year. We hope that the City Council will take measures. It seems that the new municipal government wants to make it clear that the previous one did everything wrong. Signs, pylons and urban guards are missing, especially next to the educational centers and in the new squares. It is not clear where the vehicles can be incorporated. Some are clueless and others take advantage of the confusion. And the loading and unloading schedule is systematically breached. Many have gotten used to parking where they feel like it.”
The Garage Association of Barcelona and Province also demands from the Consistory urgent measures: improve access to car parks so that drivers do not have to do so many laps, increase the penalties against those who park as they please, reorganize loading and unloading, give clear signals…
The political vagaries explain the ways of the City Council. Mayor Ada Colau insisted that everything be ready before the municipal elections. But after those works against the clock, he lost the elections and the mayor Jaume Collboni has never shared that enthusiasm, he has never clearly seen the fit of this transformation in the heart of Barcelona. The deputy mayor of Urbanism, Laia Bonet, says that they are studying the complaints, that they are aware of the problems with the axes, that they are designing the measures that need to be taken in a few months. “The pacifications came to stay – the councilwoman continues – but there are other models. The one on the axes poses coexistence problems, the maintenance is ten times more expensive than that of another road and it is not compatible with public transport. That’s why we are considering establishing other, more sustainable models at other points, in all the districts of Barcelona”.
Legal uncertainty also explains municipal doubts. The three court rulings ordering the reversal of these works prompt the City Council to take other measures. The merchants of Barcelona Oberta denounced the project, which was still in force at the time, because they believe that forcing drivers to do so much, among other things, prevents access to the center and harms many businesses. Other errors of this type will appear soon. But no one thinks it is appropriate to dismantle everything. To get out of this impasse, the judge proposed that the City Council and Barcelona Oberta agree on compensatory measures of a global nature in terms of mobility. “Inverting the axles is not an option – adds Bonet. We are recovering the dialogue that has not been the last mandates. Those ways triggered the confrontation that has led us to this.”
“We understand that the City Council wants to propose other models compatible with public transport in other streets – points out Genís Domínguez, from the Eixample Respira citizens’ platform – but we are also saddened by their lack of interest in the axes. The Consistory should act on the streets with more traffic, such as Valencia and Aragon. Bikes and scooters create coexistence problems here because the other streets are not safe.”
“Sales are not increasing”
Xavier Llobet
“It’s that they planned this transformation in a very ideological way – laments Pròsper Puig, from the Barcelona Commerce Foundation -, and did not consider its externalities. They strangled private vehicle access to the center, and we lost the client from the metropolitan area, here and in the rest of the city. All this will give rise to an expulsion of the local trade”.
Xavier Llobet, from the Cor Eixample trade association, says that people are walking through Consell de Cent more than ever, but that this has not increased sales. “Maybe they make a cane. But the expectations of the owners of the premises rose, who are already warning tenants who have little left on their contracts that their rents will rise. What used to cost you 400 euros a month will cost you 800. They opened some businesses aimed at tourism on the right side. But it is still early to appreciate the change. The usual expulsion of businesses will take place in a couple of years”.
“We live better – says María Moreno, 46 ??years old, architect, lifelong resident of Carrer Girona. You go out the window and instead of cars you see birds. But every business that closes becomes a brunch, especially on the East Side. Suddenly everything has to be cool. We all like bars, but no one wants to live in a theme park.”
“People want to live here”
Xavier Güell, director of the consultancy
According to the analysts of the real estate consultancy CBRE, the repercussions of the implementation of the green axis of Consell de Cent in the market of commercial premises are still in force, but that of housing is already a fact. “Before the works on the green axis began, the commercial fabric of Consell de Cent was of a more local character – explains Iris Oliu, head of CBRE’s department of commercial streets in Barcelona. Since then, they have opened more than 2,000 m2 of new premium brands, of international recognition”. We are talking about the additions of Alqvimia, All yours, Aesop, Sessùn, Good News, Tudor, COS and Seiko. “With these movements, the street was positioned at the level of Rosselló, the street that had a more premium profile among all the transversals of Paseo de Gràcia and Rambla Catalunya. The influx of public practically tripled during the last months”.
And the changes in the housing market are more evident. As Xavier Güell, director of CBRE Barcelona, ??points out, between February 2022 and December 2023 in the Eixample district, rents rose by 44.8%, and sales by 7.1%. And specifically in Consell de Cent these increases were more prominent, 50.9% and 10.5% respectively. “The case of Consell de Cent shows that the insertion of green areas in the center of cities generates a positive impact on people’s quality of life, with a clear reflection in the real estate sector: more people want to live in these areas and , therefore, prices are increasing – continues Güell. The implementation of green corridors causes the real estate market in the area to transform into an active refuge due to the very high demand in a section with limited supply”.
