The Ciutat Vella, the old bit of Barcelona, its core, is fast becoming its bete boire too. Often in the news, usually negatively, because of robberies, residents' protests, noise and the disgusting state of its streets, it's now hitting the headlines in a positive way. The Town Hall want to make it a referent for culture and good taste. Bravo. An admirable concept even though it's a bit of a turn-around.
According to La Vanguardia, the mayor and the president went down there last week checking on the status quo - though it seems they didn't seem to notice a lot. I mean if they can't see a man peeing all over the pavement as they walk past what chance have they of seeing the zone's deeper problems? The Vanguardia's photographers saw him and branded him an 'immigrant' - though he could equally well have been a Catalan who couldn't locate one of the few public toilets around - but for a photo-shoot 'immigrant' is somehow more compelling. More cachet.
The dignitaries did see one of this zone's new symbols-to-be, the new cultural centre, Filmoteca taking shape and a definite (remember AVE!) opening date of March 2011 was mooted. Though how many of the old biddies who currently attend cultural films in the current building off posh and safe Diagonal will venture into the darkest jungly depths of Cuitat Vella at night remains to be seen. Opening night would be reminiscent of that old Monty Python sketch 'The grannies of Notlob'. Or not, when they don't turn up.
Operation clean-up of the area also started the same week in a diffent way - a moral one - when the police began to get rid of the prostitution which apparently has been endemic in the area for more than a hundred years - where hasn't it? Usually moral clean-ups in BCN are more like LAPD episodes, ie high-profile with lots of noise, doors being broken down and half-naked girls been thrown into police vans. And largely a waste of time and money. For once, using their collective intelligence, this time they tried the Swedish Method (which is not, as you might think, a sexual position) arresting and fining clients instead of the girls). With positive results too. Most fines were paid on the spot to avoid wives seeing the official letters in their post-boxes, and secondly, the number of men seeking extra-marital services dropped to such an extent that the prostitutes began complaining about the lack of business.
The new master plan for the zone is a good compromise - in theory. It will re-define areas, vetting any new businesses, moving those labelled 'entertainment' or 'touristic' away from residential areas. It will hope to draw in heavyweights to give the zone more class and the residents more peace.
The trouble is officials sanctioning the clean-up of Ciutat Vella forgot to look at what was happening under their noses first. It seems corrupt government officials have for some time been taking under-the-table payments - big ones too, including cash, investments, and property -from the owners of flats in that same area who wanted government licences for short-term holiday letting. Not a good start to a clean up. Mmm, should be some interesting election speeches this month.
