There are mornings when one walks through the center of Barcelona and has the feeling that the city has become a set. Streets full of half-open blinds, souvenir shops selling the same Barça shirt repeated on every corner, and 24-hour supermarkets where four tourists enter a day. Meanwhile, many residents wonder where those shops that made neighborhood life comfortable went: the affordable supermarket, the grocery store, the small specialized business that gave personality to the street.
We all want a more comfortable and attractive Barcelona for those who live in it, with more balanced and higher quality tourism. This aspiration is very similar to the almost utopian idea of neighborhood commerce that some public officials constantly advocate. We are not asking for anything extraordinary: it would be enough to recover a real, useful, and diverse commercial network, where supermarkets, specialized stores, and even gourmet shops coexist. In short, a city where commerce responds to the needs of those who live in it and not just to the inertia of the fastest and most superficial tourism.
But the reality is much more complex. Commercial premises do not fill up on their own or sustain themselves solely with good intentions. Nowadays, the businesses that pay the most for certain premises in the center are precisely those that many of us would want to avoid: souvenir shops or 24-hour supermarkets. They pay, in many cases, above-market prices and also are the only ones who dare to bet on certain locations, assuming the risk of operating in an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment for commerce in Barcelona.
The City Council is right when it tries to limit the proliferation of certain activities to prevent the commercial degradation of the most touristy areas. The problem is that the current regulation is too often causing the opposite effect to what is sought. Quality commercial operators, consolidated brands, or interesting projects simply flee Ciutat Vella. Not because they are not interested in the location, but because municipal regulations do not allow it or because they perceive a growing degradation of the commercial environment.
The question is inevitable: are we really working on solutions? Recently, a senior municipal official asked us for interesting commercial proposals for the so-called "new Rambla." The initiative is positive, but it opens up other fundamental questions. Does the administration truly understand the reality of current commerce as applied to Barcelona? Is it working jointly with commercial and real estate operators to attract quality projects? Could systems be considered that allow licenses to be granted based on the quality and value of the project, and not just its typology?
There are also other possible levers. How much would it cost to review the hotel moratorium to allow five-star hotels in Ciutat Vella? These types of projects attract higher quality tourism and generate economic activity that directly translates to the commerce in their surroundings. The streets would appreciate it. And so would the commercial fabric we want to protect.
Furthermore, there are many technical details in the granting and transfer of commercial licenses that the City Council could fine-tune to favor the arrival of quality operators. These are perhaps too technical aspects to list here, but they could make the difference between a closed premises, just another souvenir shop, or a commercial project capable of revitalizing a street.
Barcelona has talent, it has a brand, and it has an extraordinary urban heritage. What it needs is a coherent commercial strategy that combines regulation with a real capacity to attract quality projects. Because the city we all imagine is not built only by prohibiting what we don't like, but by facilitating what we truly want. And so, perhaps, in a few years we can walk through the center again without feeling that we are walking through a repeated shop window, but through a living city, with businesses that serve its neighbors and seduce those who visit us. A Barcelona where commerce is once again part of daily life, and not just a memory.