This...Dear and very attractive Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni:

Bus and coach companies that transport tourists to Barcelona refuse to relinquish their right to operate right into the heart of the city. And this Tuesday morning, they made their position abundantly clear to the Collboni administration. The sector has expressed its outright rejection of the new Bus Zone 4.0 being designed by the City Council, which aims to reorganize and restrict the flow of tourist coaches in the center of the Catalan capital. Several companies and associations took advantage of the sector's fifth annual meeting, organized by the employers' association FECAV, to voice their discontent with this measure, promoted by the Tourism Department, which directly impacts mobility. "Unfair," "unrealistic," and "impoverishing": this is how professionals have described this initiative, which has already begun to reorganize the space, stops, and methods by which this sector can enter and circulate within the Catalan capital to transport its clients to the city's main points of interest. Among other measures, the Bus Zone 4.0 aims to eliminate bus stops in the city center, limit their operating hours, and require coach companies to take reservations to prevent the accumulation of vehicles and tourists in any one area. "The sector is suffering and things are getting worse; but we still have hope that it can be drastically reformed," declared Miquel Àngel Díez, vice president of the Professional Association of Tourist Guides of Catalonia. Díez made this statement in response to the City Council representative, Lídia Torres, Director of Mobility Services for Barcelona, ​​who, in her turn to speak, asserted that "the city is finite and needs order, and the model we had until now no longer works." "We have tourist coaches driving around without any organization," Torres declared before nearly 200 professionals from the coach sector. The head of municipal Mobility also insisted that change is necessary: ​​"A new urban model is needed." "We don't want to restrict, but rather reorganize, and both residents and tourists will appreciate that," Torres tried to explain, although that didn't reassure the attendees, who maintain that there are still "too many uncertainties" about this new model.

Israeli authorities have barred Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni from entering the country. He was scheduled to travel to Tel Aviv this Friday afternoon for an institutional trip during which he was scheduled to meet with mayors from the region.

Thousands of people—200,000 according to the organizers, 150,000 according to the Guardia Urbana—participated in the LGBTI Pride parade this Saturday afternoon in Barcelona. The march, under the slogan "Why without diversity the world would be gray. Against censorship and the wave of reaction," began in Plaça Universitat and continued to Passeig de Lluís Companys, where concerts will be held until dawn. The regional minister for Equality and Feminism, Eva Menor, emphasized that "human rights are non-negotiable" and reiterated the Catalan government's "commitment" to these rights "in the face of the wave of reaction that is calling into question this rights-defending agenda." Also among those in attendance were the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo; and the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun.

The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, wants to end "the exodus of Barcelona residents who must leave their city," and he wants to do so by focusing on housing during the second half of his term. In this regard, the Socialist leader has announced a "second wave" of measures to increase the city's housing supply. One of these measures will be the conversion of office buildings into residential buildings, but he will also promote "large-scale renovations" and encourage the rental of vacant apartments, providing legal security for their owners.

Following the water shortage and consumption restrictions, Catalonia has emerged from drought alert, and Barcelona once again allows itself the luxury of turning on its 330 ornamental fountains. In November 2022, the vast majority were closed—only 85 were maintained because they are small ecosystems of biota, flora, and fauna—and after two years off, Barcelona's mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced this Wednesday that they will be gradually restored. "More than two years of shutdowns have caused maintenance issues that need to be adjusted," he explained in a symbolic ceremony in front of the Twin Fountains in Plaça Catalunya.

From the outside it looks like a mountain of wood, fabric and scrap metal. But once inside, the prevailing organisation reveals a small community of neighbours, more or less an avenue. Life in the Vallcarca shanty town "is hard". This is admitted by Florina Drosu, who has lived there for years and has opened the doors of the site to receive a team from the ARA and explain how they are organised and how she and the rest of the neighbours live.