The trouble with being famous is that everyone wants to look at you close up, wrinkles and all. And this applies to buildings too apparently. The week after Easter, residents who live close to the SF,or Sagrada Familia, have signalled they've finally had enough of tourists gawping at Barcelona's No1 attraction. They complain about the sheer number (9,000 a day) who visit the cathedral and about the buses which park nearby and choke the roads (ca 150 a day). Perhaps they're right, as each time I've been in the area the pavements were jam-packed, making it hell getting around and doing your normal business. But for them it's seven days a week!
With local elections coming up this month (May), free newspaper Que asked political parties what their policy would be to solve this saturation problem at one of Barcelona's most emblematic sights. Solutions offered were: make the area cleaner and safer and build an underground parking area for buses (PSC); make sure there is less crime, ration and schedule coaches and give residents a platform to put their complaints to officially (CIU); build a local police office, assist new ventures in terms of local shops and make better parking for buses (PP); phase and deconcentrate tourism and have more police around the area.(ERC)
It's clear tourism in the area has increased enormously in the last few years. When I first came to Barcelona and was looking for a place to live, I noticed plenty of what you would call 'local' type shops like bakers and greengrocers in the SF area. But now many local businesses have gone to be replaced by the tat sellers of sombreros, replicas and Barca shirts such as you find in las Ramblas area. In fact the whole city (a few areas excepted) is suffering from tourist shop blight or just tourist blight period - because that's where the money is made. I mean let's face it, Barcelona would not only be too quiet without tourists (nice thought though!) but also broke.
One problem is that you just can't limit access or fence off areas of the city in the long term. Many tourists travet to the SF on metros which we all use You could limit the buses though by requiring them to book ahead and reserve space. And youn could make the tourists queue to see the SF inside the precinct of the cathedral and not swamp the pavements in front of residents' houses. By the noise the residents make you'd think this was just a Barcelona problem. but it's not. It's one that many tourist-popular cities have to face in the summer whether it's Nice or Nantes, Paris or Palermo, Marseille or Madrid - and most do not have a permanent solution.
Another problem is the residents' attitude. No one has forced them to live where they do. They chose to buy/rent a flat in this heavily congested area. Some people live in St Cugat because it's spacious and doesn't get swamped by tourists but the downside is it's 30 mins commute into the city. Residents out there don't complain about that though. These SF residents are the same ones who opposed the new Ave line in their area and the same people who profited from the recent Pope's visit by renting out their balconies for vast sums to give people a good view. They love belly-aching to the newspapers and TV. Why don't they just vote for a party which represents what they want and we'll be done with it. " No visitors to the Sagrada Familia·! There, would they be happy with that slogan?
