Barcelona got to work this Tuesday to resolve one of the city's pending issues for more than a decade: the relocation of the Eixample fire station, which since it left the historic headquarters on Provença street is in Joan Miró Park. A provisional location that, furthermore, the justice ruled was irregular because it is built on green space. To resolve this, the Urban Planning Commission has definitively approved the plan to build a new station in the block bounded by Sarrià Avenue and Comte d'Urgell and Buenos Aires streets.

The employers' association of tourist apartments continues to pressure to prevent the elimination of this type of offer in Barcelona and its surroundings from 2028. This Monday they did so by using Mobile congress attendees as a battering ram against the ban. The president of Apartur, Enrique Alcántara, and the general director, Marian Muro, have presented data from a GAD3 survey among attendees of the last Mobile to argue that congress attendees are against the prohibition of tourist apartments. Specifically, they point out that only 3% of attendees defend the prohibition of tourist apartments.

For the first time in more than two years of conflict, the foreign fund New Amsterdam Developers (NAD) is opening up to dialogue in the face of the crisis in the Sant Agustí street block, which it intends to use for co-housing. The ombudsman of Barcelona, David Bondia, announced this Friday that the fund has asked the court to postpone the eviction of Txema Escorsa, which was to be attempted again this Wednesday after neighborhood "pressure" managed to halt a first eviction three weeks ago.

For the first time in more than two years of conflict, the foreign fund New Amsterdam Developers (NAD) is opening up to dialogue in the face of the crisis over the Sant Agustí street block in Vila de Gràcia, which it wants to convert into coliving. The ombudsman of Barcelona, David Bondia, announced this Friday that the fund has asked the court to postpone the eviction of Txema Escorsa, which was to be attempted again this Wednesday after three weeks ago neighborhood pressure managed to halt a first eviction.

Junts per Barcelona gave the go-ahead this Thursday for a long electoral pre-campaign. With thirteen months still to go until the 2027 municipal elections, the party has launched a campaign against the mayor of the Catalan capital, Jaume Collboni, accusing him of "turning his back on the city". "He neither looks, nor listens, nor responds," denounced the leader of the juntaires in the City Council, Jordi Martí, at a press conference, where he presented the posters made with artificial intelligence that the group will distribute around the city, and in which Collboni appears covering his mouth, eyes, and ears.

Not even five minutes had passed since the start of the event of the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, at Foment del Treball, when it became evident that one of the issues the business community wanted to address was the regulation of the housing market. The president of the employers' association, Josep Sánchez Llibre, took advantage of the welcome to the mayor to reproach him for the non-modification of the 30% protected housing reserve. Sánchez Llibre lamented that today in Barcelona "there are no cranes on the horizon", and warned Collboni that "it will be a negative point for your term" if he ends it without reopening this file.

If there is no unexpected plot twist, the Barcelona City Council plenary will be transformed in the 2027 elections. And not only because of the redefinition of majorities that elections always entail, but because this time everything indicates that the plenary council of the Catalan capital will gain two councilors. In this way, Barcelonans will go from electing 43 representatives instead of 41. The reason? That since 2024 the city has consolidated its population above the barrier of 1.7 million.

Three and a half years and many setbacks later, the Government, local councils, and residents gave a new boost this Wednesday to the commitment to transform the Besòs and stop it from being Barcelona's "backyard." In a meeting driven by the Besòs Consortium, all parties have laid the groundwork for a new document with 28 actions —some specific and others generic— to be carried out in the coming years, including two that will modify the current plan for the Tres Xemeneies in Sant Adrià in one of its most significant chapters: housing.

The longest urban dispute in Barcelona is reaching its moment of truth. With the tower of Jesus crowned, the Sagrada Familia now definitively looks towards the Glory facade. And with it, one of the debates that has generated the most passion among architects, historians, and neighbors is resurrected: the staircase. This week, the delegate president of the Temple Construction Board, Esteve Camps, stated that an agreement with the Barcelona City Council to unblock the project is "close." And among the affected residents, who have been waiting half a century for a verdict, the feeling prevails that, this time, the moment has indeed arrived."This has to be settled and it's on its way to being settled," admits the president of the Sagrada Familia Neighbors Association, Gabriel Mercadal. If confirmed, it would be a historic milestone. After years of the staircase appearing and disappearing from plans and documents, finally, in 1976, the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) formally recorded the impact on the two blocks in front of the temple – those between Mallorca, Aragó, Sardenya, and Marina streets – to create a 60-meter-wide avenue. A promenade that would lead practically from Diagonal Avenue to the entrance of the Glory facade, which would be accessed via a staircase that would go over Mallorca street.

Barcelona took another step this Friday to try to protect the habitual use of housing. The plenary session definitively approved with the votes of the PSC, Barcelona en Comú, and ERC a modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) to establish that the habitual and permanent use of housing is the "priority" in the city and that it takes precedence over temporary use. A legal umbrella that will allow the city council to deploy its own regulation in the future to combat seasonal rentals and business models such as cohousing.

Made the law, made the trap. For some time now, some tourists had found a way to access Park Güell without paying an entrance fee and, moreover, during the time slots theoretically reserved for Barcelona residents. The key was in the Gaudir Més program, established in 2020 to try to allow Barcelona residents to access the park for free and during hours when it was not overcrowded with tourists. But soon the first websites appeared that explained to tourists step by step how they should go about getting a free ticket through this program, which theoretically was supposed to benefit only Barcelona residents. Now the City Council has plugged this loophole.

After Besòs-Maresme, Trinitat Vella. The government of Jaume Collboni and the municipal group of Esquerra in Barcelona have reached another agreement to promote the rehabilitation of homes in critical condition in the city. If ten days ago socialists and republicans agreed on an extra 15 million euros to triple the number of homes undergoing rehabilitation in Besòs-Maresme in this same term, now they want to give a boost also to the 432 affected apartments in Trinitat Vella, which have been pending works for years.

Barcelona is about to lose another historic business. If nothing prevents it, the century-old Ideal pastry shop in Vila de Gràcia will close its doors on May 31st. The retirement of Lluís Álvarez—who, along with his brother Miquel Àngel, represents the third generation of the family to run the business—will mark the end of an establishment that has been an emblem of the city since it opened in 1919. And yet another blow to the commercial fabric of a neighborhood that already includes Camps hardware store and Tarragona haberdashery, among others.

Barcelona City Council has granted a reprieve to the Baix Guinardó Gardens. This green space will not have to sacrifice its central lake to temporarily house the Estrella market. This information was released... The Newspaper As confirmed by ARA, the city council has changed its plans and will renovate the current market without needing to move the stallholders to a new location. This was announced on Monday by the new councilor for the Horta-Guinardó district, Sara Belbeida, to the residents, who had opposed the relocation from the beginning and had even taken it to court.

A victory for the residents in the first round of the battle for the apartment building at 14 Sant Agustí Street in Barcelona. The pressure from the crowd that gathered in front of the building this Wednesday prevented the foreign fund that owns it, New Amsterdam Developers (NAD), from evicting Txema Escorsa, the first resident of the building with a court order to leave. A partial victory – the eviction has been rescheduled for April 15 – which the Tenants' Union has used as further leverage to pressure the owners into negotiations.

One of Barcelona's most difficult puzzles to solve may be nearing its end. Esteve Camps, the president of the Sagrada Familia Construction Board, confirmed on Tuesday that an agreement with the Barcelona City Council for the project is nearing completion. unblock the staircase The temple is "close." "Negotiations are progressing well and are very advanced. It seems we are close to an agreement," he said at the press conference to present the basilica's annual report. Despite the optimism, Camps avoided setting a date for finalizing this possible agreement. He did emphasize that the relationship with the municipal government "is cordial." Furthermore, he considered that the fact that the fourth deputy mayor and councilor for the Eixample district, Jordi Valls, assumed that all affected residents could remain in housing within the district shows that an agreement is possible. However, Esteve did not provide further details about the possible solution to the puzzle or the number of residents ultimately affected. The key to the negotiation is how to resolve the construction of the staircase designed by Antoni Gaudí in front of the Glory façade, which would involve debris on two city blocks, between Mallorca and Aragó streets. This was, in fact, planned in the 1976 Metropolitan General Plan (PGM), which reserved a wide, two-block promenade to give the Sagrada Família a clear and easily visible access from Diagonal Avenue. However, this did not prevent the construction of housing, for which a solution must now be found if the project goes ahead.

No trace remains of the auditorium seating, and only the concrete skeleton of the stands is left, but the space of the former Mundet Homes theater is still impressive. After years of abandonment and highly restricted access, the building, designed by Manuel Baldrich and owned by the Barcelona Provincial Council, opened its doors this Monday to present the project that will transform the space forever: the Barcelona Center for Applied Neurosciences (BCAN), the first research center for neuroscience applied to health in Catalonia. The project, promoted by the University of Barcelona (UB), the Catalan Government, and the Provincial Council, will demolish the theater—which has been out of use since 1994—and transform this corner of the Collserola foothills into a space "of absolute scientific importance" where high-level academic and research activity will take place. The parish priest of the University of Barcelona, ​​recalling his first visit to this theater as a young professor, said it was a "very special" day for the Mundet campus because a solution had finally been found for a space that had been abandoned for decades. The renovation work will cost approximately 12 million euros, half of which will be provided by the Barcelona Provincial Council and the other half by the Catalan Government through European funds. To receive this EU funding, the work—which will begin in July 2027—must be completed before the end of 2028. The new research center is expected to be fully operational between 2029 and 2030. Guardia recalled that, while the space had been abandoned, several proposals had been considered, such as converting the old theater on the Mundet Campus into a large convention, symposium, and congress center, or constructing structures to house scientific research. She also explained that the new project, which aims to make Catalonia an international leader in neuroscience applied to health, stems from the impetus the university received from the frustration of not winning the Neurotech Spain project. The Minister of Universities and Research, Núria Montserrat, also referred to the history of the site, which in the past had also been an orphanage with the theater as its main recreational area. "A space that once provided care will now do so through research," she noted. Like the other speakers before her, the President of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Lluïsa Moret, also celebrated the collaboration between different institutions that made the project possible.

It's been talked about for over twenty-five years, and for almost as long as the planned timelines have remained just empty promises, but the conference The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, three weeks ago, has put again the transformation of La Sagrera On the table for investors and residents. That day, the mayor sought to define a timeline for one of the city's major ongoing projects. He announced a budget of 260 million euros until 2031 so that, by the time the future station opens to passengers, much of the surrounding transformation will be complete. This promise has reignited investor interest and also put residents on alert, residents who have long awaited the project's realization but are also wary of its potential impact on their neighborhoods. Both investors and residents agree, however, that the transformation surrounding the future La Sagrera station presents a significant opportunity. The extensive linear park along the Camí Comtal—stretching over 4 kilometers—is intended to bridge the historical divide created by the railway lines between the Sant Andreu and Sant Martí districts. A vast green space—destined to be the city's most important—will form the backbone of new neighborhoods, bringing up to 30,000 new residents, as well as new hotels—one of them next to the station—offices, and other amenities.

In 2025, the city suffered yet another blow to Barcelona's historic commercial fabric. On December 31st, the three premises of the legendary Cáceres furniture store in Plaça Revolució de Gràcia closed their doors for good. Adding to the grief of the loss, the neighborhood residents worried about what kind of business would occupy those spaces. Well, one of the businesses that will soon take over one of those ground-floor units in the square is the Nocturama bookstore, a small literary gem that, after three and a half years in the heart of the Raval neighborhood, is packing its bags for the city center.

Paral·lel Avenue is today one of the streets in Barcelona that is experiencing the major transformations of the Catalan capital most directly. At one end, it has the shafts for the future L8 metro line and the first signs of the city's great transformation. the Montjuïc FairOn the other hand, there's the renovation of the access roads to the Port, the hope for a better connection with Morrot, and the recovery of the Three ChimneysA context that the City Council now wants to take advantage of to revitalize a thoroughfare that, despite its renovation a decade ago, has failed to regain its former glory. With this objective, the city's fifth deputy mayor, Raquel Gil, presented the municipal government's project to improve Paral·lel this Wednesday. It comprises 22 measures—with a total cost of over 22 million euros—including actions such as the reopening of the restored Teatre Arnau, the renovation of Plaça de la Bella Dorita and Plaça dels Pajaritos, the refurbishment of the sidewalks at the Poble-sec corner, and the strengthening of the connection between the artistic spaces of Paral·lel and the surrounding area. The aim, therefore, is not to modify the urban planning of an avenue that was renovated less than ten years ago, but rather to "give a boost" to the area by taking advantage of the changes taking place in its surroundings. "Now things are happening around here that are helping us with a transformation that will allow us to build a sense of community," Gil explained. Hence, one of the main pillars of the government's plan is to strengthen the links between the area's cultural fabric, its commercial sector, and its residents. To reinforce the connection of residents with a thoroughfare that is often perceived as a boundary between the three neighborhoods in the three districts—Ciutat Vella, Eixample, and Sants-Montjuïc—that it crosses, the city government wants things to happen on Paral·lel. In this way, they want the avenue to host some of the city's major cultural events, such as the Three Kings Parade—which has already passed through the section from Carbonera to Ronda de Sant Pau for four years—, Sant Jordi, and La Mercè.