Talent and technology. These are the two elements that the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, identifies as great strengths and sources of wealth for the city. And he is committed to promoting them always on a democratic basis, which he has defended after the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, confirmed this Monday his continuity at the head of the Executive after five days of reflection on his political future. For Collboni, this episode has represented a "wake-up call and a warning about the drift that the democratic and political debate is having." He has called for action "being faithful to the truth," as he said in a conversation at CASA SEAT with the editor of The New Barcelona Post, Guillem Carol.
Under this democratic framework, the mayor has insisted on his defense of talent and technology as assets that the city must bet on, through a recipe: "An administration that, from the outset, says yes, and not an administration that from the outset says no." This proactive attitude and this spirit that he assures characterizes his team are key for the most dynamic sectors of the city, such as entrepreneurs, businessmen, and researchers. They are representatives of the talent that Collboni praises, who believes that it must be attracted and retained in the city through opportunities and by managing the possible contradictions that may arise due to differences between the economic capacity of international talent and that of Barcelonians who work in other sectors. "We have to know how to manage conflicts, but without killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, which is technology and talent, and which also comes from outside."
Collboni has assured that, since his mandate began last July, he has governed with the "will to create consensuses and great city agreements", and has maintained that they have acted in this way in areas such as the pacification of public space and the tram connection: "The tone has changed." With a possible expansion of his Government up in the air since he took office, the mayor has assured that in these months the perception has been generated that the City Council "aims to solve and recognize the city's problems and challenges."
All this in a context in which Barcelona will soon be the scene of the America's Cup, as Collboni has recalled. According to the mayor, large events like this "project a positive image of the city to the world" and contribute to Barcelonians recognizing themselves as citizens of an ambitious and innovative city, capable of "convening the world around great cultural, scientific and all kinds of events."
A Budget of "momentum"
With the forecast that the Budgets designed by his municipal Government will be automatically approved this Thursday, Collboni has stressed that the accounts, of 3.8 billion euros, will represent "a boost in city projects and transformations." The Budget will be approved 30 days after Collboni lost the vote of confidence in the City Council and the period opened for the opposition to propose a motion of no confidence that has not materialized, a fact that shows that "there is no alternative in the City Council."
Within the future transformation of the city, the mayor places special emphasis on one particular sector: health sciencesBeyond the 2024 Budget and with a longer-term view, Collboni recalled that during the next decade Barcelona will receive more than 10.6 billion euros in public investment, the figure most important from the Olympic Games. Among the projects that will be promoted are works related to public transport, such as the completion of the central section of L9 of Metro, and the connection of line L8 of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) between Plaça Espanya and Gràcia. As Collboni highlighted, it also includes the construction of La Sagrera station and the urbanization of its surroundings, which will include 15,000 homes. Among the city's future projects, Collboni has highlighted the transformation of Montjuïc, with the renovation of the Fira de Barcelona pavilions and the transformation of its surroundings, including the Palau d'Esports on Lleida street and the expansion of the MNAC.
Within the future transformation of the city, the mayor has placed special emphasis on a particular sector: health sciences and public health. The coming decades will be marked by projects that are starting now, such as the expansion of Vall d'Hebron Hospital and the new Hospital Clínic, as well as the expansion of the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) as a pioneering scientific infrastructure.
The launch of the Ciutadella del Coneixement will also row in this direction, in a Barcelona that already serves as the headquarters of AstraZeneca's R&D hub. Collboni recalled that it will be located in the renovated Estel Building, after years of abandonment: "It is a paradigm and an example of what the city is doing, which is finding its way."
Housing, the main challenge
The mayor has identified access to housing as the main challenge facing the city. After recalling that he has made 27 plots available to the Generalitat, he announced that his municipal government is finalizing a plan to mobilize land for protected housing and provide structural responses to this problem, in a strategy that he will present after the European elections and that he believes should be designed with the metropolitan region of five million in mind. "If we want more capacity for protected housing, we have to go further," something for which public transport, especially rail, is also key, according to him.
One of the measures that Collboni defends to mobilize housing involves eliminating tourist flats in areas such as Ciutat Vella: "Flats were built for people to live in them. Any activity that is not habitual residence, I believe, should be reviewed," he asserted. In this regard, the mayor recalled his commitment to govern the tourism model: "We are a city with tourism, not a tourist city," he pointed out. Collboni recalled that Barcelona is the city in the State with the lowest unemployment, at 6%, and "it is because we have an economy that generates employment and wealth, and we have to maintain this diversification," precisely beyond tourism. The mayor, who highlighted the importance of the tourism sector, reaffirmed his commitment to promote quality tourism, something he believes also involves Barcelona acting more as a cruise base than a stopover, as these imply a more intensive use of public space and less return for the city.
In this sense, he highlighted the usefulness of the tourist tax as a mechanism for controlling and returning tourism for Barcelona and its residents. "We are the city in the State with the highest tax, and I say it with pride," he claimed. This is because the tax allows for the promotion of projects such as the Clima Escola plan to air-condition the city's 170 public schools in six years, among many other initiatives, and within the set of measures also framed within climate change. Collboni went further in this regard: "We have to change the conception of public space in a climate change scenario." For this reason, the City Council is working on measures such as generating shaded areas in about twenty children's playgrounds, and seeking groundwater to combat drought: "Climate change is also a form of urban transformation."
Collboni believes that Barcelona "is a city of the world with all the attractions and opportunities that implies, and at the same time it is on a human scale"In this context, public transport is called to be a key element in this transformation, to connect the metropolis and to guarantee the "human dimension" that Collboni believes characterizes Barcelona. Within this vision, he has pointed out that private transport also has a place, prioritizing decarbonized modalities: "The formula must be found and politics must make all modes of transport compatible."All of this framed within a metropolitan region and "thinking about what the great metropolis will be like in ten or twenty years and what its nerve centers will be." And with a basic conviction: the benefit should not be from the metropolitan region to Barcelona, but rather it must be bidirectional.
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This determination to focus on Barcelona from a metropolitan perspective is combined with the vision of the Catalan capital from a double dimension: "It is a city of the world with all the attractions and opportunities that implies, and at the same time it is on a human scale, which makes it the best city to live and work in," the mayor proclaimed.