A few days ago I was walking with a friend who lives in Madrid and that since before the pandemic he had not returned to Barcelona. He is one of those people who had been admirers of our city but that the political and social altercations that occurred from 2017 began to influence him negatively and now I had the idea that ours is a hostile city. We were driving in front of the Arc de Triomf and he commented how beautiful the city looked. It was one of those days that look especially bright, in which the characteristic shadow of the bananas drew a beautiful mottling on the characteristic flower ‘panots’. I was proud of that comment. I am in love with this city. I have always thought that I live in one of the best in the world. It is not a megacity, it does not have the ‘grandeur’ of Paris, nor the power of London, nor the enviable history of Rome, but it is a city that falls in love with those who visit it. Nevertheless, It is a pity that various factors have it and are still negatively marking it. Go ahead because of my condition of being in love, it saddens me even more when I see her battered. The abominable blows that were seen on October 1, 2017 and the following altercations that lasted many months later marked the image of Barcelona throughout the world. Overcoming that is not easy, nor is the image we are giving of a city in which they rob you to steal your watch or your wallet, the images of thieves, by the way, most of them foreigners starting, with arrogance and impunity, watches to other foreigners, in the middle of the street, is very sad and very angry at the same time.
I don’t think that these criminals are the same ones who dirty and daub the shutters of shops, the walls of farms and who make Barcelona ugly when night falls because of some graffiti without interest or aesthetic value. We have to be critical if we want to continue to be the city admired throughout the world, but to do so we must eradicate crime, dirt, paintings and, what is more difficult, the false hostility that has been treasured for a long time. I hope that the works that invade us now in this electoral year, serve, in part, to improve it a lot, what it lacks.