To reclaim Barcelona

"I just want to see hundred-dollar bills," Jordi Amat hums in one of the verses of his essay The Battles of BarcelonaBecause the book is a collage of authors, music, books, chronicles, conferences, projects, films, and family conflicts that make it very accessible: it's somewhere between a bibliography and a playlist of everything you need to read, see, and hear about Barcelona to understand the city's successes and failures. The book's thesis is well-known and shared by many: "The paradox of Barcelona's global success is that it strips the city bare." But Amat supports this with data and reviews that allow readers to compare the initial intentions of emblematic projects with their actual impact over the years.

The book is full of symbolic cases, such as that of the Hotel Arts: a tall tower resulting from a public initiative plan, in an area with abundant public land that was privatized, and which has changed hands with successive revaluations.(from the developers' suspension of payments to an auction awarded for 285 million and a final repurchase for 417 million). An investment opportunity created by a city plan that has failed, for example, to fund some of the public housing that would have been needed in Poblenou. The book is about this: the city's inability to capture some of the benefits it has generated.

From reading Amat, I draw two conclusions. The first is that it's good to remember from time to time that we are where we are thanks to the contributions of Josep Lluís Sert, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, the photographs of Pilar Aymerich, Jaume Sobrequés, Lluís Domènech's Museum Plan, the writings of Manuel de Solà-Morales, and so many others. Building a city is a thankless task, but perhaps we would leave less room for the far right if we valued the multitude of initiatives and individuals who today, from both the public and private sectors, think in terms of the city and pave the way for many others. The work of public administrations must once again be creative, disruptive, and effective in defending the social function of the city. We must give prestige to those who take the risk of questioning the prevailing order based on their experience.

One of the pioneers at every level was Itziar González. She is often mentioned for her tenacious fight against corruption in the Ciutat Vella district, but twenty years ago González was already different even among the architectural community. Now, many have come to share her ideas on the collective construction of the city, beyond the individual architect's project, to highlight the social purpose of transformations. She has created a school of thought.

I also find it admirable that lawyer Pablo Feu points out that purchases for commercial use—tourism, seasonal rentals, etc.—also constitute urban planning competition because they don't fulfill the function of homes or dwellings that urban fabrics should have. Or when the Residents' Association observes that, since the 1970s, the right side of the Eixample district has emptied out: from 72,000 inhabitants to only 44,000, and 116 properties have been bought for renovation by the luxury and international market. It is precisely by analyzing this data that the purchase of Casa Orsola by the municipal public developer and the Third Sector becomes clear: gentrification is not inevitable, and there are other ways of understanding housing.

Barcelona is fortunate to be one of the most studied, sketched, conceived, and analyzed cities in the world, but it's the data on the depopulation of the Eixample district and the high cost of seasonal rentals that explain why writers, journalists, singers, and screenwriters all speak of the same unease: not being able to afford to live in the city. They write and speak about what they experience; they are a sign of the times. The narrative of the global success city isn't even bought by the international media, which, as Amat documents, regularly reports on the price pressures in Barcelona.

The book's second conclusion is that reviewing publicly initiated projects over time is fundamental to evaluating their impacts. This isn't about assigning blame, but about understanding what the city has learned from the evolution of certain projects. The essay dares to do something that urban planning still doesn't routinely do: it questions the orthodoxy regarding the social return of urban projects. Barcelona is moving from a formal discussion about public space to a discussion about the economic model it attracts and how to effectively redistribute it. These issuesThese are also urban issues, and therefore, there is an increasing demand for scrutiny of city projects: participatory processes mobilize experts, organizations, community groups, and the residents involved, and the discussion is no longer limited to lanes, sidewalks, trees, and driveways. Perhaps it is time to open the can of worms regarding special assessments for street transformations paid for with public funds and the financing of public housing through the tourist tax.

The Battles of Barcelona It's a tribute to all the voices that have stood up for Barcelona and a good compendium of the stories that have brought us to where we are today. How it will all end is more uncertain, and it will be up to the reader to decide. But it's a good book for understanding that those who have the means to invest in Barcelona should draw inspiration from the ideas of those who live and breathe it.