It is not the first time someone proposes a city governed by managers. It is not the same to propose the "government of the best" as to directly aim for an apolitical and ideology-free management. The person who has launched this idea in recent days plans to be a candidate for mayor, but paradoxically says he does not want to do politics: the idea is to sign people without ideological conditioning and, from there, make the most efficient or most effective or most objectively beneficial decisions in the balance of results. It is assumed that the judgment of these results should be made through an excel, or a well-explained powerpoint to everyone, because it is about not offering political messages but the cold guarantee that this option is the best. Leave your life decisions to the technicians. Give way to the professional management of collective affairs. Do as I do, don't get involved in politics.
If this is the case, let's put some examples applied in Barcelona to see if the formula can work: for example, the tram along Diagonal. A project that has been rejected in a referendum by the citizens and that, as many times as it has been presented in the plenary session of the city council, has also been rejected. But it will still be done, because I suppose that citizens do not know enough and our representatives do not vote well, and instead there will be important technical reports that support its construction. Reports that must speak of mobility and sustainability, that we must bet on non-polluting public transport and that, supposedly, the use of the tram would decongest the center of cars. Well, this is perfectly possible. However, it would also be perfectly possible for there to be several technical reports (also of high professional qualification) that advised abandoning the project because decongestion is not achieved by eliminating road, because for non-polluting public transport we already have buses and electric vehicles, and because trams can be connected without affecting this central axis with a large and permanent scar. At this point, which report will we choose? Who chooses among the technicians? A robot? Is there an objective way to determine which specialist is better and which is worse? Do we go by CVs, by rankings, by the number of successfully executed projects? And, even so, how many would be enough and what would "success" be? I know a very undemocratic ruler who technically knew how to build excellent dams. And very successful ones.
Another case: for example, the superblocks. An idea that, beyond the offices of architects or urban planners, theoretically responded to an ideological need. A fairly shared principle, by the way: making city blocks more livable by creating car-free spaces and offering more roadway to pedestrians. So shared was the idea that the previous mayor already promoted its first projects. Now then: placing them in one place or another, will it obey technical or political criteria? The big question would be, for example, if the Eixample can afford a superblock in its geographical heart and urban density. Yes? No? Will this favor automotive decongestion or, on the contrary, will it create permanent and even more polluting traffic chaos? Do we have car alternatives well prepared enough? How are we doing with efficient and regular public transport? And how are we doing with parking lots at the city entrances? And people who still necessarily use the car for work, what will they have to do? Do all these questions have an eminently technical answer, or is it necessary to have an ideological vision to sway the decision? Again, who appoints the technician? Should we trust their self-affirmation that "I am not a robot" or, precisely, will we pretend that there is a non-political way to make collective decisions? And even more important: would people be able to believe it?
The candidate applicant himself stated, a few years ago, that in a certain referendum he would vote yes and immediately leave the country. I suppose it would be a technical decision, endorsed by several studies and balances, the result of an indisputable track record and certified by the most prestigious of the metropolis's consultancies. Otherwise, it would be frankly disappointing. Making decisions based on human conviction, or on principles. No, not you. Precisely, I don't see you.