It's Thursday morning. The Barceloneta neighborhood is slowly waking up as shutters are raised, uniformed dockworkers make coffee in a bar, the market is already open, and crates of fish are piled high in the stalls. The butane delivery man, who has parked at the entrance to Pescadors Street, acts as an alarm clock by banging the gas cylinders with a hammer, in case someone needs to refill them. This week, these streets have been in the headlines of all the media outlets so that Barceloneta is already the most gentrified neighborhood in the entire country. According to the latest study by the Center for Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). When asked about this issue, most residents don't react with surprise: "Gentrification has been out of control here for a long time," they agree resignedly. ARA visited the neighborhood to talk to residents—both newcomers and long-timers—and see firsthand what it's like to continue living in a neighborhood where the machinery of the system tends to push you out.

That no two neighborhoods in Barcelona are alike might seem like a blatant truism. And it's even more so when we say that in the case of Barceloneta, this obvious truth is five times more pronounced. Alfons Cánovas and his son, also named Alfons, are the second and third generations to run Cánovas Jewelers, at number 16 on the bustling La Maquinista street. Perhaps their shop is the last bastion—or one of the last—of local, traditional businesses—or neighborhood shops, call them what you will—that remain in a neighborhood as special, beloved, and ever-changing as Barceloneta. There are, of course, many iconic restaurants – Salamanca, Chérif, La Electricidad, La Bombilla, Can Ramonet, Café Salvador, La Cova Fumada, Casa Leo... the list is quite long – but the complaint of the two Alfonses is clear: "We're left all alone; there are no shoe stores in the neighborhood." They are happy because their business is doing well and remains deeply rooted in the neighborhood's character. They have invested in its growth, in gaining customers, in adapting it to the changing times, but at the same time, they regret that Barceloneta is no longer a neighborhood for its residents. "No effort has been made to protect local, iconic businesses; all they do is open supermarkets, mobile phone shops, and identical restaurants," argues Alfons Jr.

A man died this Friday afternoon on a street in Barceloneta after hitting his head when two unknown individuals pushed him while attempting to rob him, sources from the Guardia Urbana confirmed to ARA. Police officers were able to arrest the two suspects in the incident. According to the same sources, the victim is homeless. After receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the man finally died. Based on a witness' description of the attack, Guardia Urbana officers have arrested the two attackers. An autopsy and investigation into the death will be conducted by the police force.

La Barceloneta is a hake stew or pickled anchovies. La Barceloneta is in four-story apartments, that is, a two-story house divided into twenty-eight-square-meter apartments. La Barceloneta is life on the street, with meals delivered to your doorstep. La Barceloneta is where Alba Aguilera (Barcelona, 2001), Montse Catalán (Barcelona, 1975), Esther Jorquera (Barcelona, 1987), and Marina Monsonís (Barcelona, 1979) work or live. They explain how they fight against the paellas and frozen sea bream sold on Passeig Joan de Borbó (a name they don't like), against the macha tea and chicken shops. teriyaki And above all, against monoculture tourism. La Barceloneta is where the four women have become friends, tied together by many ropes from a single net they weave with strength: they want to preserve the essence of a fishing neighborhood.

It's not even 12 noon, and the thermometer is already reading 25 degrees in many parts of Barcelona. "It feels like August 15th," says an elderly woman, sitting on the terrace of one of the first beach bars. from the Barceloneta promenade. She says this while looking at the beach, which, even though it's the end of May, is packed to the rafters. However, the difference with any August day is that today the vast majority of those who wanted to inaugurate the first beach day of the year are Barcelona residents, rather than tourists, who also lie on the sand, some with reddish skin, revealing that today has not been their first day of wallowing on Barcelona's beaches.

The Casc Antic and Barceloneta have never been quiet neighborhoods when summer arrives, but this year, with the end of the restrictions, the situation exceeds any past time. The desire to party, mainly among young people, complicates the weekend nights, which in this part of the city begin on Thursdays. "It's very bad. The noise is much worse than it was before the pandemic", complains Elena Marti, a resident of Barceloneta. "As the beach has been one of the first places to open, it's as if many people have discovered it and have taken a liking to drinking there", she says. Another place that seems to have more and more people every day is the Born. In this neighbourhood the party started even before the end of the state of alarm and has now increased. "I understand that it has been very hard and that young people need to go out and socialize, but not everyone has to suffer this. We need to sleep. With the narrow streets of the neighborhood the sound rises a lot", says Asun Justo, a member of the Association of Neighbors of Casc Antic. The organization began to receive complaints from neighbours about the noise at night and decided to convene an assembly to address the issue: "So many people came that we had to take the chairs and change places because we could not fit", explains Asun. At that meeting, some neighbours decided that from midnight on they would start throwing water from the balconies, that they would start collecting signatures to take them to the Ombudsman and that they would demonstrate in the streets of the city. The Barceloneta Neighbourhood Association joined the call scheduled for today and this afternoon hundreds of residents of the two neighbourhoods have taken to the streets to demand a response from the City Council. The protests have begun in different neighbourhoods and have coincided in the Via Laietana with Princesa street, where they have cut traffic with posters calling for "enough noise" and demanding "the right to rest".

La Bombeta is a lifelong classic in Barceloneta, on Carrer de la Maquinista almost touching Joan de Borbó. A little over a year ago, when the pandemic was not yet present, they opened a branch a few meters away. And they have resisted the devastating onslaught of covid. Another irreducible place of the neighborhood, perhaps even more classic, Cal Pinxo, has not had the same luck. Born with the historic name of Casa Costa, the restaurant closed last week unable to refloat the losses of recent months. La Barceloneta, a metamorphic neighbourhood, subjected like no other to the market's criminal thrusts, to speculative swings, to the imperious need for tourism, lives with stoicism the inclemencies and uncertainties of the disconcerting cycle of openings, closures, relaxations and successive and capricious tightening of restrictions. When the good weather arrives and the sun comes out, in Barcelona there are few things like the Saturday morning beat of Barceloneta.