Fermín Villar is passionate about La Rambla and all of Ciutat Vella, to the point that he seems to know the name and surname and brand of underwear of each of its inhabitants. He tries, through the Amics de la Rambla association, to synthesize several worlds: they say there are realities that should slap each other, but he tries to demonstrate that the path of collaboration is the only one possible.
He cannot stand dogmatism, but he has the advantage of having experienced firsthand the dramas that excessive posturing can cause. You would never finish the conversation, he has enough for ten books, and he utters more than one lapidary phrase. That's how it's good: the headlines, at first glance.
--- Is La Rambla in decline?
--- La Rambla is a reflection of our society.
--- But doesn't La Rambla have a special problem?
--- I answer you the same: La Rambla reflects the social tensions of each moment, even of each century. La Rambla warns about what can happen in the rest of Barcelona. What is happening now with the controversy over the Eixample Uses Plan? We already experienced it before: since commercial activity cannot be controlled with agility, non-compliance is difficult to prosecute and that is when we have the problem. A problem that is not solved by prohibiting.
--- How is it solved?
--- By being proactive. First, not being afraid to reclaim public space. And controlling public space does not mean establishing a dictatorship, neither enlightened nor of any kind, but simply being able to walk down the street without being sold beer cans. And second: working together.
--- Public-private collaboration?
--- I would add a third agent: the Third Sector, which is called "third" for a reason. Look, the private sector is the agent that knows the reality and for that reason alone must make itself available to the public sector, which is the one that has the norm and control. And then the Third Sector must be integrated, which is not a private sector, no matter how much it legally takes the form of foundations or associations.
--- Non-profit organizations.
--- It makes me laugh, the "non-profit" thing: maybe you don't have a profit motive, but you also don't pay as many taxes as private businesses, and therefore you don't contribute as much to public coffers. And that's fine, everyone in their role and collaborating.
--- Give me an example of collaboration between the three.
--- Tot Raval. It is a comprehensive foundation, made up of Niños del Raval, the Liceu, the Amics de la Rambla, the MACBA, hoteliers… And we work together to promote projects! When serious things need to be done, an entity like this helps a lot. Or for example, the network that was formed to prevent empty florist stalls from being useless: Tot Raval acted as an umbrella for the operation, the Escola del Floral provided teachers, the florists' guild provided the raw material, Impulsem provided people looking for work… Result: eight well-trained florists have emerged and some closed stalls have been able to have a training function. The guild is delighted, Impulsem has found job opportunities for people looking for work, and we, as Amics de la Rambla, have fulfilled our raison d'être. I mean, answering the initial question, no: we are not in decline.
--- So why is it said so much that La Rambla is?
--- Because society perhaps is. We are facing Narcissus's pond: La Rambla is the mirror of our society, nothing more. And nothing less.
--- So the model doesn't fail?
--- If we want another model, let's all get to it. There's no need to criticize the administration all day, nor to criticize entities that want to make money. Of course they want to make money! The important thing here is not this, the important thing is to put oneself in the other's shoes. It's like when we talk about immigrants, or tourists: where is the border?
--- La Rambla has a lot of both.
--- But how do you distinguish them? Legally and administratively, where is the line? Because this is exactly the line of dehumanization. Or for example, when we make such a distinction between worker and employer: but if there's no company, there's no worker!
--- A tourist doesn't consider working here.
--- "Expats" do, they want to work, right? And you know what happens? Well, even the most humble newcomers "pringa" a lot, but at the same time they have many opportunities to open businesses. And you know why? Thanks to tourist activity!
--- Elaborate.
--- Tourist trade gives more solidity to these newcomers than neighborhood trade, and thanks to that they can send a lot of money home. Sixty euros is a lot, in some poor countries. There is the case of a guy I know, who has been able to register at the same supermarket where he works. This is because bureaucratic obstacles have been eliminated, and it is a step forward. Or I know another who acts as a commercial exchanger, a public relations person between people and businesses, because he knows everything. There is also a Serb who used to make caricatures with scissors, and who now owns a tourist apartment. People make a living. There are unregulated activities, certainly, but we must bear in mind that our first "top manta" (street vending) were unauthorized street florists. Precisely the existence of the florists on La Rambla allowed the activity to be organized, becoming the first flower market in Catalonia. Well, that's what's needed: to bring order, so as not to find street vendors of beer cans, and also to find a dignified way out for everyone.
--- What has become of the "top manta"?
--- We have fixed it.
--- How?
--- It got out of control during the first Colau government, and it has been fixed during the second. We have all learned that messages are very important: you cannot discredit the police, because then criminals take advantage of it. And it is necessary to know that the real criminal is not the street vendor, but the importer of illegal products. This got out of control in its day, and we set up the Platform of Those Affected by the Top Manta, which led the change. What was the new message? Well, that there are no illegal people, there are illegal activities. We made a lot of noise and everyone joined us: the castellers, the residents of Barceloneta, the Federation of Opticians, cultural and leisure entities... Then some Member of Parliament wanted to contrast our demands for order with the existence of immigrants in dinghies, and I cannot stand these hypocrisies. They are not true, it is not true that bringing order is incompatible with social sense. It is just the opposite. In the second legislature, Albert Batlle consolidated the necessary message: that this could not only be solved with police. Because it was not about arresting, but about warning, and about finding dignified work and social solutions for everyone.
--- And how did you find these exits?
--- Evidently, through entrepreneurs. And merchants. Now some of them set up and dismantle Sònar, for example. Or there's one who has opened an African clothing store, although initially in a neighborhood that wasn't ideal. Et cetera.
--- What is, now, La Rambla's main problem?
--- As I was telling you, the inertia is the loss of control of public space. You generate a commercial offer in line with the visitor you have, and vice versa. It's not about gentrification, but about expulsion: after all, it's the residents of La Rambla themselves who sell their apartments, don't mess with me! But if what we promote are coffee shops, and another coffee shop, and another coffee shop, and illegal cannabis clubs, and street vendors, and bachelor parties and drug dealers, we end up having the tourist we have. Quality tourism is not about who spends, but who respects!
--- Good one, that.
--- Notice that "quality" is precisely a non-quantifiable concept. And while we keep focusing on how much they spend, we don't realize that we should be concentrating on how they spend!
--- It's all a matter of message, then.
--- The message you give, exactly. The problem is not the store, but the irregular importer, and then it's logical that you find t-shirts on La Rambla with Snow White snorting coke.
--- What message should be given then?
--- Look: when you go down to Terminal 1 you find signs promoting the Moco Museum but none warning tourists that street vending of beer is illegal. We don't want binge tourism, but we also don't want only millionaire tourism: Obama came to Barcelona with a backpack because there was a guesthouse, not because there was a big hotel! Without a guesthouse, there was no Obama with a backpack.
--- So La Rambla warns.
--- La Rambla anticipates what is going to happen in the city, and it is a mirror of society. More than a mirror, it is an oracle. La Rambla has a great global reach, and a global pandemic had to happen for us to realize it. It's not just hoteliers who ask us to come, it's all workers!
--- Are all European cities becoming cloned?
--- Luxury stores yes, coffee shops too, but look: here we have four and a half kilometers of beach next to the center. Public housing must be built quickly, so that people can go and live there. It is necessary to regularize non-conforming volumes, so that owners can rent out flats and not sell them. We must make life easier for residents, so that they don't leave! Besides, here we have a great variety of product offerings, a great gastronomic variety, competitive prices... Oh, and also, we live life on the street. No, no: nothing cloned.
--- Why doesn't the standard Barcelonian want to live in Ciutat Vella?
--- You live for a year or two, and then you get tired. Especially when you're very young. Those who stay are militants of the issue: they are flexible with tourism, they are not "anti" at all, they just want to live in peace. They want to be able to sleep. Apartur flats, for example, now have sound meters. Don't shout! This is a city, not an amusement park!
--- "Pretend it's a city".
--- Exactly. A tourist apartment is nothing more than a space where a family wants to live for ten days as a family, not as hotel guests. It's enough to organize it, and make things easier for the neighbors: having an apartment in Ciutat Vella is expensive in terms of maintenance, because many are listed. Do they already have that sufficiently in mind?
--- It's too exceptional a neighborhood.
--- Don't tell me we're clones. The Drassanes. The columns of the Temple of Augustus. The Consolat de Mar. The mosaic of Pla de l'Os. We're awesome!
--- What do you think about reforming Via Laietana to make it less passable for cars?
--- Unlike Via Laietana, La Rambla historically was never a traffic axis. It is what it is, a rambla, a stream, a promenade. Via Laietana, on the other hand, was made precisely to be able to circulate through Ciutat Vella from end to end, to overcome the walls that existed. And now go ask the 7 Portes restaurant, which is very worried, because customers tell them they would like to come, but that it has been made so difficult for them that they pass. The risk we run is suffocating Barceloneta. It was supposed that tourists were the bad guys and now precisely those we expel are not the tourists... but the Barcelonians.
--- What is the alternative?
--- Evidently it must be a 30-kilometer per hour road, but without stifling its circulation. And boost the parking lots of the Cathedral, Moll de la Fusta, Cambó… The famous vertical parking lot of La Rambla, we also have it underutilized. Right now, the case is that it's easier to go to 7 Portes by taxi from the airport than from the Eixample. If we forget, we will stifle everything: Should La Rambla combine bicycles and buses in the same lane? And also garbage trucks? Frankly, I don't see it clearly.
--- And yet, La Rambla survives the changes.
--- Keep this in mind: life comes to Barcelona through La Rambla. Newcomers arrive there. Hustlers have always come from La Rambla. Amics de la Rambla was founded in the 60s, and twenty years later the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona was based on existing associations like ours. Later, all that movement of neighborhood associations became denatured, corrupted, and some of them even became politicized… but we maintain the same philosophy: if it's good for the entrepreneur, but not for the neighbor, we don't need it. And vice versa: if it's good for the neighbor, but too bad for the merchants, it's not good for us either.
--- Difficult to combine.
--- Not at all. We need to get something into our heads: lobbies are not only made up of rich businessmen. There are lobbies that unite wealth and social and civic needs. Do you know Lluís Sans, from the Santa Eulàlia store?
--- Of course.
--- Look closely at him and you will see an activist. Everything he does to improve Paseo de Gràcia he does in his free time, and not just thinking about money. Activism is everyone's business, and when we all agree, when we know how to put ourselves in someone else's shoes, that's when things work.