"Expats may have money, but they go to the municipal sports center like everyone else."

It is known as the neighborhood of the 'expats', of the spaces of coworking and high-rise offices. Poblenou has changed its landscape in just a few years, and what was once industrial and working-class is now touristy and, above all, very attractive to foreigners who want to come and live in Barcelona. Teresa Núñez is the president of the neighborhood's Residents' Association and a testament to the changes Poblenou has undergone, both in terms of urban planning and in terms of the residents who now live there.

Projects such as 22@, the opening of Diagonal, or the Olympic Village aimed to open the neighborhood to the rest of the city, but they have also led to an increasing number of people wanting to live in Poblenou. Unfortunately, and as is the case in the rest of Barcelona, the housing problem has also become entrenched, as well as a lack of amenities that the residents are trying to resolve: "The expats They may have money, but they go to the municipal sports center like everyone else," explains Teresa. And these are not the only saturated facilities: for many years, the neighborhood also had a shortage of schools and secondary schools, and today there are still not enough primary care centers to meet all the demand.

But housing remains the big issue to be resolved: over time. What should already have been done, or at least started, hasn't happened." Núñez denounces that projects have been initiated that have been based on speculation and private interests, and that, on the other hand, public housing is years behind schedule. At the moment, 238 of the 3,500 promised in the short term are under construction, according to. In fact, it was a year ago that some sixty organizations in the neighborhood joined together and created the Poblenou Coordinator for the Right to Housing. For the moment, they have asked the Sant Martí district to create a housing committee. "zero" and that remain pending a response from the administration.

Although social housing is years behind schedule, what is being built are offices: "Most are empty, but they were built because the building permits were running out," adds Núñez, who complains that we live in "buildings without people" as a business. One option proposed by the city's mayor, Jaume Collboni, was to convert these offices into housing, but the Association does not approve of it: "It would mean giving more profit to private investors."

Loss of identity

"If you walk down Rambla de Poblenou you won't hear anyone speaking Spanish or Catalan. But it's a dichotomy: it's a good place to live and it's normal that people want to come here," says Núñez. The transformation of the neighborhood and the massive influx of tourists also means a loss of Poblenou's culture and identity: residents are forced to leave and many businesses have to close because they can't afford the rents: "We don't have croissants anymore, we have croissants, and we don't have cupcakes, we have muffinsThese are some of the complaints from residents: overcrowding, the loss of local commerce, rising prices, and the fact that we're no longer talking about seasonal tourism, but rather year-round tourism that requires people to live and accept this new quality of life.