It was one of the criticisms made from the very beginning of the project to pacify Barcelona's Consell de Cent street: gentrification. That is, the prices of apartments and commercial premises would rise, driving out longtime residents. Now, the study Price de la green: the rental market effects of Barcelona's green axes policy, Prepared by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) professors Josep Maria Raya and Ghizlen Ouasbaa and Erasmus University Rotterdam professor Pedro de Solà-Morales Casals, it provides data on rental prices. In the areas closest to the green axis, rents rose between 12 and 14% more than in the rest of the city. The study confirms that rents are now around €200 more expensive than before, and has demonstrated this by comparing prices in the area at different distances from the green axis with those of other areas of the city over the last seven years. As expected, this increase has occurred mainly since the completion of the works, that is, in 2023, and it is foreseeable that, given the successful use of space by citizens and the calming of noise and traffic, it will increase even further in the future.

We read in the ARA newspaper what the Sant Antoni neighborhood council's solution is to improve coexistence after complaints from residents about conflicts: "Remove 30% of the furniture from the superblock". That is, planters, benches, or basins that have "the duality of being used during the day by neighbors and at night by addictive consumption."

Tactical urban planning has its days numbered in the San Antonio superblock, one of the places where it became emblematic. by Ada Colau.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has taken the floor in the long-running judicial debate on the legality or illegality of the green axis of Consell de Cent. The range of resolutions The appeals of first-instance courts for and against the superblock had led to another round of appeals that the High Court of Justice (TSJC) was now set to decide. This Tuesday, the court made public its first ruling. A judgment that, in this case, dismisses the appeal filed by the City Council and rules in favor of Barcelona Oberta. It does, however, register a dissenting opinion.

First a reassuring message: the City Council does not foresee that this will be a particularly tough summer for coexistence due to road and rail works. Yet works there will be, perhaps not as many as last year (62), but of greater impact on citizens' lives, especially in the Eixample. There work is expected to begin simultaneously on the 36 stretches of street that are to become the first axes of the superilla and on the tramway along Diagonal, which will be accelerated to take advantage of the August slowdown. In total, there will be 56 new different interventions totalling €23.5m of municipal investment, among which the advancement of the reforms of the Via Laietana and Pi i Margall stand out. These are two of the City Council's star projects for this final stretch of its term in office. These works bring the total number of works underway in the city to 183.

With a little delay compared to the first announcements, Barcelona has already activated the countdown to start works on the first four pedestrian-first streets in Eixample's superilla: Consell de Cent, Rocafort, Borrell and Girona, and the squares that will appear where two of these streets cross. The preliminary work, which is to move bicycle hire statiosn and loading and unloading areas for delivery lorries, will be launched during the second half of July. The works as such will start in the second half of August, with an expected duration of eight and a half months, which should allow the City Council to complete them before the next local elections.

Barcelona's City Council has finally made public the reports that opposition groups have been demanding for months on the impact of the new plan for pedestrian-first areas in the Eixample (known as superilla) on traffic. All measures to make streets more pedestrian friendly have a flipside, which is that other streets become alternative routes and absorb more traffic. In the case of the first street where measures will be taken, Consell de Cent street, the nearby Mallorca street will expect to take the brunt, especially between Muntaner and Sicília streets. Although it is currently not an especially busy street, it is expected to exceeded 90% saturation at rush hour by 2023, with a similar phenomenon occurring on Valencia street between Urgell and Rambla Catalunya.

The rush of works that the City Council is preparing before May 2023 elections is already starting to show its head with a succession of big announcements this week: the last one, this Thursday, when a date was set for the start of the works of the so-called Superilla Barcelona, which will create 21 pedestrian-first axes and 21 new squares across the Eixample from now until 2030. In June work will begin on the first four axes, around Consell de Cent street, as well as the four squares where the axes meet. The forecast is that work will be very fast and will not extend beyond the first quarter of next year (about eight months). The timetable says that the project, which is En Comú's flagship project, has to be ready before the elections.

May the announcement of urban improvements not translate into the expulsion of neighbours and lifelong commerce, as has already happened in so many places in Barcelona, from the Born to Gràcia. With this premise in mind, the City Council has approved a suspension of new business licenses in the streets where the pacification of the Eixample will begin to unfold, in the surroundings of the future green axis of Consell de Cent. The aim of the measure is to avoid that, once the streets are places with less space for cars -they will not have asphalt and the speed will be limited to 10 km/h-, they are filled with new bars and establishments of the same style. In short, what happened in Enric Granados street, now converted into a hub of leisure and food, or in Blai street, in Poble-sec, which is full of tapas bars.