Now many residents find themselves opposing the changes that the city wants to make in their neighbourhood. For all the praise and accolades that the ‘Barcelona Model’ of city planning has received over the past 15 years, there are now signs that it is starting to wear thin for residents. The enormously costly Fòrum 2004 project is still a sore spot for many social organisations, which wanted the funds directed at more community-enhancing facilities. Many Barceloneta residents fear their neighbourhood may be the next one scheduled to be remodeled for a high profit.
The huge majority of people here (some 5,000 families) live in quarts de cases, 35-square-metre dwellings that were chiselled out of the neighbourhood’s original mig de cases some 200 years ago. In January of this year, the Ajuntament announced a plan to install lifts in these. With an above-average percentage of people over 65 living in the neighbourhood (26.4 percent) this seems like an excellent idea. In fact, it was presented to the various neighbourhood associations (in the words of one representative) “like it was a no-brainer”. But as soon as the fuller details of the Plan de la Remodelación de Barceloneta (or Plan de los Ascensores as it is locally dubbed) became clearer, many locals reacted, in rowdy neighbourhood meetings, protest marches and noisy caceroladas. It has, in fact, divided this tight-knit community.
The ‘lift plan’ will work like this: residents in each finca will take a vote on whether they want to participate, according to information presently available. If a 50-percent-plus-one minimum majority is reached, they will then be relocated to provisional dwellings (currently the enormous housing development under construction next to the Estació de França is earmarked). But only 80 percent will be able to return, as the new space needed for the lift’s mechanisms will ‘eat up’ a fifth of the finca’s dwellings. Exactly who will get to return remains unclear. There are other grey areas: who will pay relocation costs? Will preference be given to homeowners over renters to return? If homeowners are relocated to new apartments will they need to pay the considerable costs of a new escritura (deed)? And how about those who are currently paying a rent that is below market value? Will their rent suddenly be hiked with the addition of a lift, or will they simply be ousted, victims of a large market demand for their tiny quarts, which are currently worth the amazingly high sum of €600-€800 a month?
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