It is an oasis in a sea of employed public space. A village gala for neighborhood use. But of great symbolic load. Barcelona has just transferred its game program in the squares to two spaces that the neighbors have abandoned long ago: the environment of the Eixample) and the (Ciutat Vella). A conquest bounded in space and time: one morning and a grass carpet full of toys, shelves with board games, banks, large tables, and giant size wooden games. The program, in a pilot phase, is part of the and seeks to reconquer them for neighborhood use. “We were never coming here, it is horrible, from here the neighbors fled a long time,” Sylvia and Pedro, grandparents of Yerai, two years old, sitting and playing in the Plaza de la Sagrada Familia celebrated on Saturday.
“The idea is not to get the tourist, but to enhance other uses in massive spaces, share the public space,” explains Joel Garcia, director of the space of a proposal in which three dynamizers encourage playing, recommend and explain the games. The Plaza de la Sagrada Familia was filled this Saturday, with an audience of several generations, from babies to their grandparents, through kids or young families. The activity does not distinguish between and tourists. Spontaneously, who stay for a long time are the families of the environment; Visitors, who go to what they go, if they stop, look or are only a few minutes. Late in the morning, I count: “The most fan has been a father in the neighborhood who, after a good time, has left saying that in the afternoon he will go to the Plaza Reial,” said Sara, one of the dynamizers. Last week, in the central Porticada square surrounded by terraces, a group of kids from the neighborhood organized a fast chess games tournament.
While in Barcelona the but, the Action Plan of the Sagrada Familia is extended, four challenges have been marked: reduce the saturation of public space, transform uses of trade towards proximity, improve mobility and ensure the daily life of neighbors. And in the last one is where in the City Council, when designing the management of the EGA, he thought about incorporating the program (let’s play in the squares), which operates in 50 enclaves since 2021, after the pandemic, when and “neighboring it”, which would be the opposite of gentrification, it was a political priority for the government of the former mayor Ada Colau.
“Each space of great influx has its strategies, common throughout the city, but also local. And just as we find new solutions, we also take advantage and incorporate programs that already exist and generate public value,” explain municipal sources.
Some of those who approached the Sagrada Familia’s game space this Saturday repeated, because the program began on August 30. Like Laia, who encouraged her friend Raquel, and went down to the street with her three -year -old children. “The initiative is superb, but not enough, look, we are surrounded,” he said. And put examples: “The playground is already their own [los turistas]They even enter the pipi can to take photos of the temple. The neighbors avoid the surroundings of the Holy Family, to go to work, we chose the mouth of the farthest subway, for any displacement we take a turn to avoid the mogollón. ”
Verónica got out of the house, “in the total tourist crux,” to the square with his eight -year -old son. They played chess and Dutch pole. “We lived here,” he insisted on the concept that refers to Far West films. “We even consider to leave the neighborhood. We are always looking for parks further, we avoid the environment of the temple and go down to Glòries [donde la ampliación del parque se estrenó antes del verano]”, He regretted, while saying that he will give voices at school, so that people know the game space.
For now, the Consistory is satisfied with the application of the game plan in the squares to points saturated by tourism. The first weekend about 250 people participated and “the feeling is very positive,” explain municipal sources. The EGA are part of the tourism management plan of the mandate of Mayor Jaume Collboni that seeks to “manage tourism activity to improve its balance with the daily life of the neighbors and place Barcelona as a reference in the management, management, financing and social return of tourism activity”. It is expected that the Let’s play in the squares I disembark at tourist points during Saturdays and Sundays, at least, until February.
