"When you govern, you have to dare to say no"

Jordi Martí, number 2 on the BComú list led by Ada Colau and Deputy Mayor for Culture in the mandate that is now ending, meets us in the superilla of Girona street with Consell de Cent. One of the emblems of the Comuns. What a few months ago was a bustle of cars, today is a dirt square. That said: a square that, for now, is still under construction.

--- What is BComú's city model?

--- We have it right here. It could be summarized with the superillas. It is a model that began in 2015 when we realized that the Olympic transformation and all subsequent transformations have made Barcelona a global city, but that the next step must be a catalog of different public policies. The ambition to be a global city is very good, but the main objective of a city council is to ensure that the city continues to be a place to live, that it does not expel citizens, that it does not generate more social inequalities and that it has breathable air.

--- Is this the success of Ada Colau's government in the last eight years?

--- What the Comuns do is plant the seed. To say that there must be a change. And that this involves implementing different policies in the field of climate emergency, social emergency and a more sustainable economic model. That is, one that does not generate so many inequalities and is not so oriented towards services. We have to think about models of economic progress that are socially and environmentally sustainable.

--- However, they say that the superilla model causes gentrification.

--- This is a classic from decades ago. Some say that when you put a park in a neighborhood, you gentrify. Even when you put a library. I always answer the same: the alternative, then, is not to make improvements? It is obvious that the city must be improved. And if we have unbreathable air, which according to the Public Health Agency kills more than 1,000 people a year, action must be taken to remove cars from the city. Can this gentrify? Okay, but measures must be taken not to gentrify.

--- What are these measures?

--- There are two types. First: regulation. In this, liberals resist a lot because they continue to have blind faith in the market. And regulating means creating land use plans so that commerce, facilities, and services are plural and diverse. And, second: a lot of public housing has to be built to regulate rental prices and for housing to be considered a right, just like health or education.

--- One of the Comuns' main battles is the price of housing, but it seems that a solution has not yet been found.

--- Time has been lost with housing. It is probably the main oversight we have had in these 40 years of democracy: not realizing that it would be the new emergency of a global city. The Olympic Games made us a global city and increased land prices. The only way to regulate it is to build public housing. From 1979 until now, practically no public housing has been built, and what was built was for sale and, therefore, 30 years later it ceased to have the label of subsidized housing. These are very long-term policies because they are measures that seek to change structural models.

--- What is the ultimate goal?

--- From 1979 until now, practically no new public rental housing has been built. Now we have built almost 4,000 and we will double the public housing stock in the next two years. Is this enough? No. This will allow us to go from 1% public housing to 2% and change. Vienna, which is the reference model, is at 30% public housing. Imagine what remains.

"The main oversight we have had in these 40 years of democracy has been not realizing that access to housing would be the new emergency of a global city"

--- At this moment, we have a metropolitan housing operator that plans to build thousands of homes on public land with private investment. This is a model for the future. However, we face a difficulty: the metropolitan sphere is no longer that of the 36 municipalities, but that of the 160 municipalities and more than 5 million inhabitants.

--- And, how is it governed?

--- I believe the solution lies in the 2006 Estatut which proposed a territorial distribution by veguerías. And, therefore, to create the veguería of Barcelona. The Estatut proposes to annul the diputaciones and convert them into seven veguerías. In our case, the veguería coincides exactly with the metropolitan region and, therefore, it would be fantastic if we had a veguería administering and governing a large metropolitan region.

--- It doesn't look like this will end up happening, does it?

--- Perhaps not in the short term, but, I insist, it is a proposal that is in the Estatut. It is the city of Catalonia. Articulated with large metropolitan regions and, among them, a very large one. Contrary to what some say: that today Catalonia continues to be a recognized country with its own language and culture has a lot to do with having a great projection platform which is its capital.

--- We have talked about housing. Let's move on to tourism. What is BComú's tourism model?

--- The tourism model is that Barcelona must continue to have tourists, but it cannot be a tourist city. For people to understand us: a tourist city is one that bases all its economic activity predominantly on tourism. In a city, economic activity is divided into two parts: that activity inherent to living in common and the economy that goes outwards, such as exports or investments. If we focus this second part completely on tourism, we will have a city of low wages and a city to be used and not to be lived in. And, therefore, what we propose is to diversify this economic package. We must orient our economic policy towards reindustrialization, towards research, towards all those sectors of the economy that generate good employment and that are environmentally sustainable.

"If we focus all economic activity on tourism, we will have a city of low wages and a city to be used and not to be lived in"

--- I believe so. At the very least, contain it. Now we have stopped it, but it is still very high. With the PEUAT (Special urban plan for tourist accommodation), hotels have been stopped and we have contained tourist activity a bit. From my point of view, there are certain tourist activities that have no interest whatsoever.

--- Which ones?

--- For example: one-day visit cruises are the typical image of a city oriented towards tourism. A city that is only designed to be used. This makes no sense in a city like ours where we can compete internationally with many other areas of economic activity.

"One-day visit cruises are the typical image of a city oriented towards tourism"

--- There may be some. It is not a frontal opposition, although it is true that it is a very uninteresting activity. I would emphasize a fundamental infrastructure such as the port, which serves us to send to the world everything that Barcelonians and Catalans are capable of producing. We also have to imagine the entire industrial zone, which is also public land, or the new industrial economic activity like the DFactory that the Zona Franca Consortium has built.

--- The Hermitage was also considered for the port.

--- The Hermitage had three problems. First: it was public land. Second: a city that wants to be a cultural capital, that has its own culture and language, was surrendering to a franchise. And third: according to its promoters, it was aimed at cruise passengers. This has no interest whatsoever. Everyone says that tourist overcrowding must be combated. Now, when you ask how it should be done, no one dares to say no to things. And, when you govern, you have to dare to say no. Say no to the Hermitage and say no to the airport expansion.

--- Some present them as the party of no.

--- When you are a successful city and from a global logic you have to choose. And choosing means saying yes to certain things and saying no to others. We have said yes to the America's Cup and we have said no to the Winter Olympics. We have said yes to Mobile and we have said no to the Hermitage. It is not a problem to say no. Barcelona has enough pride and is powerful enough to be able to choose. We are no longer the Barcelona of the 80s or 90s. Today what we need is to choose well to imagine a Barcelona that, in addition to having ambition, is a city to live in.

--- What are the main challenges the city faces in the coming years?

--- First, housing, without a doubt. And here we have to continue working on three lines: public housing, regulation, and encouraging the private sector to build protected housing. Second: the area of mobility. We have to finish resolving mobility in the metropolitan area. For me, there are two central infrastructures: line 9, which depends on the Generalitat, and the tram connection. In addition, we have to resolve the great pending issue, which is the Rodalies trains. Third, an economic model that makes us definitively leave this dependence on services, on tourism. And, finally, continue with an ambitious neighborhood plan so that the postal code increasingly less conditions your future project.

"We are no longer the Barcelona of the 80s or 90s. Today what we need is to choose well to imagine a Barcelona that, in addition to having ambition, is a city to live in"

--- The character, the temperament. I have always had a very good relationship with him. He has a temperament from another era, which has been lost, and which should be recovered.

--- Of Jaume Collboni?

--- The insistence. He has really gone through a journey and has not thrown in the towel.

--- Of Ernest Maragall?

--- His commitment. Many people have criticized him for prolonging his political career so much. I am one of those who thinks he does it out of a sincere commitment to the city.