La Casita Blanca: a decade without furtive sex to have a soulless and semi-deserted square


“They were the perfect neighbors & rdquor ;. so remember Irene Guellsecretary of the Gràcia Nord-Vallcarca neighborhood organization, to those in charge and to the discreet occupants of the Casita Blanca, the historic ‘meublé’ that was closed and demolished in 2011 by the Barcelona City Council as a result of the affectation of the space by an urban reform that has not yet taken place.

Eleven years after the pickaxe swept away the Casita Blanca, one of the buildings that must have treasured the most pleasure inside, located at number 37 Vallcarca Avenue, with a discreet entrance on Bolívar Street, and border also with that of Ballester, the result is a wasteland, a small square of soulless land and often deserted, with a few seats, few, among which several yellow ones stand out with a cement base, so terribly horrendous that not even Martin Braithwaite he would sit in them to be able to stay at Barça.

Councilor Eloi Badia proposed this week to the neighbors to undertake half the planned reform and that the green area reaches Agramunt for now

Some trees offer shade to the small desert. But nothing that can be seen compensates for the fact that furtive sex was put to an end so that the Barcelona City Council completed an urban reform that was to give way to a green area. After a long decade, that operation is still blocked.

A mural that does not do justice

Going through there is saddening, and the mural that is supposed to pay homage to what was a forum for conjugal cheating is not consoling, although they also counted, say the testimonies of the nearly 90 years of activity of the establishment, stable couples in search of a different scenario .

The mural: a little house on top of a tree with a couple on a swing that is more reminiscent of a picnic than of the coitus that took place there in one of the 50 rooms that the establishment had. A lost opportunity, as this newspaper already denounced seven years ago, that mural.

Close the HM-14

At the headquarters of the neighborhood association Gràcia Nord-Vallcarca, Irene Güell, 85 years old that could be 58, remembers with her precise memory how that property was lost so that nothing extraordinary has happened in return. In fact, Güell reports that the neighborhood lose another furniturelocated at number 14 Vallcarca Avenue, the HM-140: “It was smaller than the Casita Blanca. It had 10 rooms, each with its own style. When they opened it, they invited the neighbors of the nearby farms to visit it. Now they will open a hotel”.

Neighbors report that another ‘meublé’ on Vallcarca avenue, HM-14, closes its doors

Güell affirms that those responsible for the Casita Blanca and its staff were “very participatory & rdquor; in the neighborhood, who went to parties. And that there were people who went to sleep in winter just to ensure the heat that they did not have in their homes.

The property was affected at the end of the Franco regime by a very forceful operation that was to give way to a road that connected Vallcarca with Plaça de Joanic, and which was ruled out with the arrival of democracy.

The green area is green

But the projected green zone kept the municipal scythe threatening the business. Finally, in 2011 the party succumbed, the business closed and the building was demolished. The closure left the 30 employees who were in charge of welcoming stable or occasional lovers unemployed. Eleven years later, the councilor of Gràcia, Eloi Badia held a meeting this week with representatives of Gràcia Nord-Vallcarca to try to unblock the reform that did not come.

Güell considers that the last councilor who dared to act in the area was Guillem Espriu, during the mandate of Jordi Hereu as mayor. “Espriu told us that he had money available to widen the sidewalk of Vallcarca avenue on the Besòs side (that is, going up to the right), from Maignon upwards. He was the only one who played them in Vallcarca. But they lost the elections & rdquor ;, he comments on the last single-color government of the PSC in Barcelona.

The later mayors, he says, were too afraid. And he didn’t move much more. “The only thing that was done is Can Carol, the civic center, the district gift to alternatives& rdquor ;, he explains with a frown. Gràcia-Nord Vallcarca clings to the modification of the General Metropolitan Plan approved in 2002, which provides for the construction of a green area from above Lesseps to the modernist Comas d’Argemir house, a house designed by Josep Vilaseca that adjoins Carrer de Republic of Argentina, Bolívar and Vallcarca avenue.

Güell says that as a result of the 2002 plan, almost all the owners of the houses that have to give way to green were compensated. But since no action was taken, there were consequences: “All the houses on the left side, going up, are squatted. We have never been able to determine the number. But it is a squatted neighborhood & rdquor;.

Badia’s offer

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Asked about their plans on the site that housed the Casita Blanca, the council reports that the green zone forecast collides with the lack of neighborhood agreement. Güell certifies that there is no consensus, because Badia’s offer at this week’s meeting is undertake the reform only up to Agramunt street, that is, considerably below the Comas d’Argemir house. And for that the neighbors should give up the previous, broader plan.

“What guarantee do we have that they will then reach the top? & rdquor ;, Guell question. Now, the entity will speak with its associates to respond to Badia. But everything points to the fact that for now, where there was sex and revelry, there will continue to be some tremendous yellow seats under a rather bland and modest mural.


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