City of pomp

I would say that the image of a series of race cars speeding down Paseo de Gràcia and spinning around in a testosterone-fueled manner to burn tires will be one of the snapshots of this year and, in turn, one of the images that will determine the tone of the administration led by Jaume Collboni. Let me say beforehand that I am not against Barcelona hosting as many sporting, technological, and musical events as necessary; at the same time, I understand that it is very difficult to manage this type of meetings –which entail a very large stress of visitors in a very short time– in such a way that they do not affect the normal course of citizens' lives. I would also say that Barcelonans share my stoicism: after all, we are all spiritual children of '92, and we understand that urban transformations often must contemplate apparently uncomfortable and scarcely popular decisions.

But that, the spirit of festivities that compensate for overcrowding with a good shot of civic pride (and a good dose of money to be distributed among us) has nothing to do with the Road Show we witnessed the other day in the center of our city on the occasion of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Catalonia. I understand that closing off the center of Barcelona completely without causing inconvenience is impossible: but a spectacle that ends up being seen by 38,000 people (relatively, because as most attendees admitted, you couldn't see a damn thing) cannot end up collapsing the mobility (and the soul) of most Barcelonans. Despite the increased frequency of metros and public buses, the images shared by citizens were typical of a third-world city. If Barcelona wants to return to the map of the best cities on the planet, perhaps it is necessary to think more about the well-being of its inhabitants and a little less about Instagram.

 Achieving everyone's empathy for a private phenomenon –I should write concerted, because administrations have been loosening money for many years– is achieved by making them participants in the event. I am not going to enter into demagogic arguments such as imputing global climate change to a few F1 cars making four turns accumulating smoke on Paseo de Gràcia for hours. I repeat and insist: any city in the world needs certain bad taste shenanigans to put itself on the world map. But the City Council should be aware that every day there are more Barcelonians who feel excluded –or directly expelled– from their home. They are not radical anarchists or generally bitter people, but fellow citizens who are forced to leave their neighborhood because a simple coffee costs three euros and rent half their salary.

It is in this context, within an increasingly impoverished and uncomfortable Barcelona for its natives, that people, when they see a group of post-adolescents walking around with F1 models through the Eixample, get fed up with everything and curse their mothers, it is something very understandable. The administration has helped very little, arguing that the paving of Paseo de Gràcia with Gran Via was a planned work for the citizenry, when the City Council's own portal confessed that it had been concocted to coincide with the Grand Prix. After the bad climate generated by the Road Show, the City Council decided to compensate by traveling to Madrid to explain the America's Cup project (with a somewhat branch-like eagerness; I don't see the PSC of the 90s perpetrating such an act) and reinforcing the city's submission to hosting festivities with the announcement of the programming of a new party, the Tour de France.

I will insist until nausea: I perfectly understand the strategy of positioning Barcelona through global impact events. But the City Council must know that if the precariousness of our lives continues to decline unstoppably, Barcelona will host all the festivities in the world, but its citizens will have to watch them on television from exile in a small Pyrenean village. What I am saying is no exaggeration, and the most worrying thing is that the city's administration not only seems to ignore it, but is delighted with itself and very happy seeing how Paseo de Gràcia and the city are filled with vulgarity, at full speed.