Do green axes gentrify?

Today, the political use of disjunctions that present concepts that until recently seemed complementary as antagonistic, without any proof, is common. This is a useful formula for discrediting political adversaries and avoiding the commitment to make positive proposals for the community.

The misuse of the false dilemma has also been used in the case of the alleged contradiction between the right to continue living in the city and the quality of public space. This discourse has permeated public opinion—including among working-class sectors—and places the quality of urbanization as the cause of gentrification, the expulsion of lower-income citizens from their homes. This belief was already spread in 2022 by the current Councilor for Urban Planning at Barcelona City Council. when he wrote in the NOW"Pacification and public space improvement efforts must incorporate usage plans and measures to preserve the neighborhood and its residents. Otherwise, green transformations will end up gentrifying the neighborhoods they were meant to improve."

By posing the dilemma between the quality of public space and the right to maintain one's home, the weakest sectors of the population were seemingly protected, but the structural causes that drive them from their homes were ignored. The reality of a phenomenon that affects a large portion of the capitalist world's cities was ignored: the role of investment funds or real estate developers; tourist apartments or the subdivision of homes for seasonal rentals; or, ultimately, the lack of a social housing policy. Issues that have nothing to do with the improvement of public space.

The insistence on the aforementioned dilemma characterized the 2023 electoral contest. The aim was to neutralize the electoral gains from the sustainable citizen recovery of urban space by demonizing its consequences. It also sent a message of reassurance to the economic, financial, and real estate sectors, allowing them to continue doing business in the city center with impunity, since the reasons for rising housing prices stemmed from the erroneous policies of the party then in charge of the City Council.

As is well known, the strategy paid off in the elections, and the campaign was based on discrediting the civic benefits of the Eixample's green axes, with arguments such as: green axes undermine the Cerdà Plan; the alternative to green axes is the restoration of inner courtyards; green axes cause traffic chaos... even to the point of filing a complaint against these actions in court, forgetting that this policy had been initiated during Pasqual Maragall's coalition government. Once the mayoralty was won, the attempt to discredit the green axes continued, resulting in their deterioration and indiscipline among private vehicles, and, of course, resulting in no further events being scheduled.

But now, the same sectors that opposed the green axes are also showing the way forward for those citizens who were marginalized from the city center. This was stated in a collaboration with the architects' magazine AxA"The housing market in cities is increasingly strained: the strongest economic sectors occupy the center and expel young people and families to the periphery..." "The solution lies in rethinking the periphery and providing it with quality services and housing, and above all, ensuring fast and efficient public transportation." In other words, we consider the process of expulsion irreversible. The center is a place of business, not of urban life. Colonize the periphery with good housing and efficient transportation (including the 47 Manolo Vital line), since the center doesn't need green axes that hinder the mobility and business of large real estate developers and financial institutions.

But not everyone accepts the trade-off between the dignity of public space and the right to maintain one's home. Thus, fortunately, the residents of the Left Eixample have replanted the flowerbeds in the green axes of Consell de Cent, abandoned by the City Council, and have denounced the traffic indiscipline that hinders its use by citizens. Furthermore, another form of activism comes to us from Europe, from the hands of President Ursula von der Leyen: the green axes of Barcelona (Consell de Cent, Rocafort, Borrell, and Girona) were awarded at the European level this October, demonstrating that in our cities "the streets can once again be for people and vegetation."

For the moment, the City Council remains silent, and we do not know if it will continue until Barcelona becomes the world capital of architecture in 2026. Rectifying in politics is not usual, but here we only need to replace a disjunctive with a copulative one, to understand that citizens need democracy. and prosperity, quality of public space and staying in our homes.