The reform of the Ronda and incivism in the ‘misery market’ agitate Sant Antoni, in Barcelona

The imminence of a new work of the call ‘tactical urbanism ‘ that floods Barcelona has now mobilized with force residents and merchants of Sant Antoni. Recently constituted in a new citizen platform, they prepare actions of protest to avoid the intervention planned by the city council from February to provide new “citizen uses” to the pedestrianized round of Sant Antoni. Quite the opposite of what those affected want, supporters of compliance with the previous plans (of 2018, and more expensive) of remove the large raised slab that for nine years housed above the provisional tent of the municipal market and to recover the road.

Bus and bike lanes would improve mobility in the area and avoid the excesses and conflicts that pedestrianization has entailed and they have been denouncing for months, they argue.

The consistory assumes that the intensive uses of the public thoroughfare after the confinement have generated greater pressure on citizen coexistence. But the Ronda, on the border between the Eixample and the Raval de Ciutat Vella, has become a hyper-crowded axis with worrying problems of incivism. Just look at the night bottles or how the trees planted just a couple of years ago have become sad urinals. “Last night (Wednesday) there have been two robberies, and when not, they are fights, drug sales and people drinking at night,” says one of the spokesmen of the Platform of Affected by the Slab of the Ronda de Sant Antoni, Francisco Villena, tired of being a testimony from his home.

The collective, which returns to collect protest signatures Against the planned work, after the crisis of last August, plans a concentration or traffic cut in the area so that Mayor Colau hears them, they say. And they emphasize that in the complaint there is no hint of “racism”, because incivism encompasses “all nationalities”, some with the hustle, others even recently landed in search of revelry.

Manifesto and signatures

In a manifest foundational, they list that “they leave home in fear”; that dirt, broken bottles and food remains accumulate after excesses, which favors the presence of rats; that the market for misery and stolen goods has returned; that the deals and fights linked to a very close drug dealing are constant … And they believe that all this will not improve with the municipal plans to encourage citizen use with furniture (rest areas and tables), more greenery, games space “and ‘jumpers’ and a gym area” that promote settling in the street. The provisional reform has a budget of 750,000 euros, to act on about 4,500 square meters.

Last summer, many neighbors already clamored for “recover traffic“In order to avoid that focus. But it would be restricted, only the aforementioned lanes, which would also improve the functionality of some bus routes, says Villena. They regret that the city council ruled out eliminating the slab” because it cost four million euros, “leaving a definitive solution for later and that will go through the rethinking of all the rounds. But the platform proposes to discard “patches”, save that money and add it to the 1.4 million that have already been budgeted for the redevelopment within the framework of the millionaire project of reform of the Sant Antoni market, explains another spokesman, the merchant Toni Olivella.The added fear is that the tactical action of the next few months, “will end up staying forever.”

Support for the cause

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They claim a comprehensive remodeling and roadway, urgent measures against incivism and the permanent installation of a post of the Urban Guard as a deterrent. The Federation of Sant Antoni Comerç supports this “total, definitive and consensual reform”, explains its president, Jordi Arias. And the same holds Lidia Núñez, from We are Sant Antoni, supporters of the design proposed in 2018, with bus circulation, given that the problems in the area also fully affect sales on the axis. They also have the support of other neighborhood entities.

The consistory has always defended that this last plan was participated by neighborhood entitiesHowever, residents and merchants in the area believe that those who live or trade in their immediate surroundings were not taken into account.