Last March, social third sector entities once again carried out a In these meetings, the ombudsman has detailed his proposal to tackle homelessness. Sources indicate that it is a pilot plan project called Pla Zero Carrer (Zero Street Plan) which, initially, should be implemented in two neighborhoods – one in Barcelona and one in another city, which is expected to be L'Hospitalet de Llobregat – and which sets the ambitious goal of halving the number of people sleeping on the street in just over a year. To achieve this, it calls for the administration, entities, and the private sector to work together, sharing information and objectives so that most people who are currently homeless can move forward with their own projects.

Line 4 of the metro will once again suffer a summer with works. The director of projects for the Department of Territory, Encarna Ramos, explained this Tuesday during the neighborhood council of the Dreta de l'Eixample that the Verdaguer station on the yellow line will be out of service for two months. As she detailed, it will not be possible to access the platform of this line from July 6th and for eight weeks. The works, however, will not force the interruption of the train service, which will run through the station, but without stopping.

Just over a year remains until the next municipal elections, and in most municipalities, parties are already pulling strings to nominate their candidates and configure their lists. In the four Catalan capitals, a good portion of the candidates have already announced if they will run again, and new names entering the municipal dispute have also been revealed, but there are still unresolved unknowns.

The geographer Oriol Nel·lo (Barcelona, 1957) has just made, along with the Madrid architect Agustín Hernández and with essential infographics by fellow geographer Joan López, one of the most relevant contributions in recent years to the eternal debate between Madrid and Barcelona. The book Barcelona/Madrid, per un diàleg crític –which for now can only be found in Italian, but which will soon be published in Catalan by the publisher Tirant lo Blanch– was presented a few days ago at a conference of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) and is a commission from the Federico II University of Naples.

The Barcelona City Council received European backing this Monday for its intention to act against tourist apartments. In a press conference alongside the mayor, Jaume Collboni, the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen, stated that "there is no doubt" that short-term rentals have become a "major problem" in many European cities, not just in large capitals. He also explained that he is visiting the Catalan capital to "learn" about what is being done in housing matters.

Pepe's return home this Thursday after spending a week in provisional prison at can Brians has given air to the Bon Pastor neighbourhood of Barcelona. The case of this man in a wheelchair who killed a thief who wanted to rob him has altered the day-to-day lives of neighbours accustomed to living on the fringes of the city, but peacefully. For a few days, the unfortunate episode has put the spotlight on its streets, which have filled television hours with a portrait of the neighbourhood focused on security that does not explain, not by a long shot, the reality of a Bon Pastor that continues to be largely unknown to much of the rest of the city.

One of the most symbolic actions in the early days of Jaume Collboni as mayor of Barcelona took place on Pelai street. A few weeks after taking office, the mayor dismantled the tactical urbanism that Ada Colau's government had implemented on this main artery in the city center. Now, as his term approaches its final stretch, the municipal government of the PSC is once again setting its sights on this street. In a meeting with local merchants, the third deputy mayor and councilor for Ciutat Vella, Albert Batlle, committed to making the redevelopment of Pelai to make it more "pleasant" part of the roadmap for the next four years.

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.