A city’s history depends on many factors and events which go beyond its decision-making capacities. Barcelona, historically, has been a fighting city, built in the face of adversity (walls that did not collapse, bombardments, wars and so on).

Since the return of democracy, the city’s progress has relied largely on a succession of big events. This has had positive effects: there is no disputing the changes and improvements that the Olympic Games represented for our city. But it has had negative ones too: access to housing, for example, was forgotten. Events took centre stage, and various social and urban needs of the majority were put to one side.

As a result, Barcelona has grown in fits and starts.

But nowhere is it written that it has to be that way.

Why can’t we carry out a major urban transformation unashamedly, with no conditions, because we want to and because we need it? Why can’t we imagine the best city possible and try to turn that into a reality?

A major transformation, without looking for excuses that limit our capacity for action. A transformation thinking of citizens, which makes neighbourhood residents, their needs and hopes, the key players. Thinking of the city we want to be, not the one they let us be. Without wasting any opportunity, but where it is us who choose them.

In short, where it is us who decide on the city we want to be.

 

1) An old, harmful and unsustainable model.

Where do we start? These days, Barcelona is deeply proud of Ildefons Cerdà and his urban development plan, the Eixample (expansion), an object of admiration.

It was designed to have plenty of public space, with a health and hygiene perspective, which promoted equality and well-being among ordinary people.

But the Eixample we know today bears little resemblance to what Cerdà dreamt of. Speculation and private mobility have distorted it. 

The result is some 6,000 cars per square kilometre travelling around Barcelona, making it a city with one of the highest vehicle densities in Europe: twice as many cars as Madrid and three times the number on the streets of London.

And with a very undemocratic distribution of space: most of the city's public space is allocated to vehicle traffic and parking, despite the fact that most travel is done on foot, by bicycle or by public transport.

This has to be turned on its head. We need to rethink our cities. Because cities today cannot be what they were a century ago. Today’s cities are facing different challenges, such as climate change. And they also have new potential, such as new technologies that enable them to reduce mobility. The city model for the 20th century is no longer a condition of progress.

We need a more democratic city, one that redistributes its spaces and their uses according to the needs of the majority, and that implies changing the city’s yardstick so it becomes the most vulnerable members of society: children, the elderly, women, people with functional diversity and so on. The more a city’s residents can develop in it, the better it will be.

Ildefons Cerdà himself pointed out: “Up to now, whenever attempts have been made to found, reshape or expand a city, absolutely no regard has been paid to the number, class, condition, character or resources of the families that would have to live there. It is only logical that its inhabitants should be the true starting point.”

We aim to reclaim the Cerdà spirit. We aim to reclaim what speculation and developmentalism snatched from us.

• A healthier city. One day, not far off, we will remember the cities of these last decades, steeped in pollution, with schools surrounded by traffic and smoke, with the same incredulity and rejection that we feel today when we recall that people used to smoke on public transport, in cinemas and hospitals.

Superblock Barcelona is a healthy city, for living better and longer, a city that looks after its residents.

 

• A city of well-being for everyone.

  • A city for young children, where children can play in the street (more than 200 play areas have been constructed over the last six years such as the Octopus at Parc de la Pegaso in Sant Andreu).

  • It is a city where you don’t want to rush around, a city that invites you to take a breather, where you don’t need to shout to be heard and where you can sit down and watch the locals, not cars, going by. A city that creates a community, like a household. Such are the green corridors, or the three big parks, Pla i Armengol and the Clariana de Glòries, as well as Parc Central de la Marina, Can Batlló and Colònia Castells, which will expand our green infrastructure and meeting spaces by a further 25,000 m2.

  • A city you can live in, which means prioritising housing. Despite having fewer powers, Barcelona is the authority – not just the city, but the authority – that is building the most public housing in the Spanish State, as well as implementing an innovative and very extensive range of public policies.

 

• A more sustainable city. A city that thinks locally and acts globally, to reduce gas emissions and thereby contribute to the future of a city that is better not just for us but for our children too.

 

Barcelona has been a pioneer in creating a utility supplier such as Barcelona Energia, which only uses renewable energy and enables both the authority and an increasing number of residents to save on energy.

 

• And a more economically competitive city. Yes, because if we opt for public transport, we not only improve our air but also re-industrialise the industrial estates. Because when we generate pedestrian zones, we stimulate local commerce, as the Sant Antoni Superblock has shown, enabling it to lead the economic recovery.

 

And that is an undeniable attraction for the most cutting-edge international companies: they are keen to establish themselves where they can work but also where their employees can walk their children to school, do business sitting at a table out in the street and connected to the world. It’s no coincidence that so many companies choose Barcelona.

 

And, obviously, this project also represents an extraordinary investment, the city’s economic revival at a time – the post-pandemic period, when so much is needed. We are the authority that has been putting the most public works out to tender in the whole of Catalonia, more than the Generalitat (the Catalan government). In this term of office, the urban development plan alone represents an investment of €525 million and the creation of 8,311 jobs.

 

And it fits in with the EU's outlook: Superblock Barcelona is also European funds, Next Generation for the city of the future.

 

 

2) What we are proposing: Superblock Barcelona.

So what does Superblock Barcelona entail?

It’s not about changing a couple of blocks. It isn’t a change in the Eixample either.

Nor can it be reduced to a set of more or less major works in the city.

Superblock Barcelona is a change in the key figures: from vehicles to people but also from adults to children, elderly people, women and functional diversity.

Superblock Barcelona means a comprehensive transformation of all the neighbourhoods, which aims to transform the Eixample but is not restricted to it, not by a long shot, and which includes each and every one of its districts and neighbourhoods.

Superblock Barcelona is, in short, a new city model, a different way of understanding it, seeing it and experiencing it.

And what is it based on? 4 pillars:

• Reclaiming public space. The pandemic has taught us how important the city is as an extension of our home. Parks and squares are the balconies and playgrounds of those whose homes lack them. Libraries are the study rooms for those without a quiet place at home to do their homework in. Streets are play areas for those with nowhere to play...  What are we doing?

  • Without a doubt, the best known projects are the green hubs: 4 streets in the Eixample district and 5 in Sant Martí converted into real urban parks.

  • But the most symbolic, perhaps, is the transformation of Av Meridiana. How it has changed! From an urban motorway to a rambla for taking a stroll.

  • Comprehensive transformations like this will be seen on all the main thoroughfares: Diagonal, Via Laietana...

  • And tactical urban planning will gradually fade away – because it's obviously temporary – once the space gained has been consolidated. Like the terraces: first of all, jobs needed to be saved, now they have to consolidated.

First it was time for ethics, now we are adding aesthetics, and by the end of this term of office, we’ll have better terraces, better restaurants and a better economy.

 

• Traffic calming.

  • Protecting schools, for the sake of children’s health and safety. What could be more important than that? Like Escola Estel, Escola Brusi and so many others. There will be 150 traffic-calmed schools by the end of this term of office. And our target is to achieve 100% school traffic calming in the next term of office.

  • 30 Zone. We are planning to have 30 km/h zones covering more than 200 km, 75% of all city streets, by the end of the year.  

  • As for bike lanes, we doubled their length in 4 years (from 126 to 240 km), and they keep on growing.

 

• More and better public transport. Because, as the former mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, quite rightly pointed out, the most advanced city is not the one where even the most humble have a car but the one where even the most wealthy use public transport.

  • Regarding the tramway, the first section was started during this term of office.

  • As for electrification, the target is to have 80% of buses electrified by 2024, in addition to doubling or more the number of charging points.

  • And the Mobility Plan provides for the construction of a further 32 km of streets for pedestrians plus another 70 km of bus lanes, and to increase the bike lane network by 40%.

 

• More greenery, more nature. 40 hectares of greenery gained between 2019 and 2021.

 

I ought to point out that, all in all, it’s not a difference of degree but of scale. It’s not an acceleration, it’s a change.

And if we talk about “big transformation”, or “comprehensive transformation”, it's because the numbers back us up.

Until now, cities grew outwards. In Barcelona, on the other hand, a new city is growing from within, from the heart of its neighbourhoods. A genuine metamorphosis made with and for its citizens.

In short, Superblock Barcelona is Barcelona’s biggest transformation since the Olympic Games here.

 

3) Conclusion

 

The Barcelona Superblock model is already an international benchmark. The prestigious New York Times referred to it in a long report entitled “What New York can learn from Barcelona”. The world looks to and admires Barcelona for its action in public spaces.

And it is not doing this transformation alone. Today Broadway, the legendary Broadway Avenue, is now pedestrianised. Today the banks of the Seine, where 40,000 cars used to pass by every day, are pedestrianised. European cities have constructed an average of 11.5 km of cycle paths this year (2021), with Paris, London and Berlin leading the way. And tactical urban planning for acting faster is a reality from Chicago to Milan.

What is the Paris 15-minute city plan if not a project like Superblock Barcelona? Names change but the perspectives are the same for every cutting-edge city.

It is the sense of time and the sense of the majority of citizens: today eight out of every ten of Barcelona’s city residents want more pedestrian space.

Cities full of cars and smoke are a thing of the past. Cities of people are the future.

Of course, this is not a change that will only affect only Barcelona or which Barcelona can face on its own. This is a nationwide issue, and needs to be considered and dealt with as such. It needs to be a shared goal, with courageous and coherent initiatives, not just from the City Council but from the metropolitan and national levels too.

That is why yesterday I addressed President Aragonès, to propose the convening of a discussion process to approve a National Agreement on Sustainable Mobility. A process that invites the various institutions involved, with a notable presence of the municipal world, as well as all the political parties and, naturally, civil society and the general public. A process based on clear principles of sustainability, social cohesion and economic competitiveness, and which concludes with they prioritisation of immediate investment in line with the country model we want. A process that enjoys the relevance and prioritisation which the climate emergency and the country’s progress merit.

 

I’ll finish now. The paradigmatic image of the pandemic was crowded ICUs and empty streets. Now we need to reclaim the city, fill it once again, but with our residents, trees and greenery, benches and tables, games and activities for everyone, and with local and international commercial and economic drive.

Covid shook the city and brought a halt to many spheres, including the urban transformation process. But now we are making up for lost time.

Barcelona is taking a big leap forward and as with any big transformation we have experienced, this will entail a period of reforms. So, over the coming months, we’ll see the intensity of these big transformations. We’ll also see how temporary things (such as tactical urban planning) become definitive, to gain a new city reborn from within.

We are aware that a process of change always brings about inconveniences but the result – which we know from other historical moments – is worth it.

We’ve got a new city to gain.