Photo: Sitesize
Last Monday, the Periódico de Catalunya published this interview by Patricia Castán with Itziar González, who has recently been appointed councilor of the Ciutat Vella district. The somewhat morbid interest in the story, it must be said, is to see how she gets out of this mess, how this architect, known for her work mediating urban conflicts between users of public space (not exclusively represented by neighborhood associations, but also by them) and the public administration (which is not the same thing, of course), resolves the issue. We also find the story particularly amusing because a few months ago we were able to attend the talk that Itziar González gave as part of the
REthink Barcelona – REcover the city
conference organized by the Sitesize collective; the talk took place in the basement of the Nostromo bar, in an atmosphere of proto-Christian meeting typical of the catacombs… it’s amazing how life turns around! Of course, we will have to see what room for maneuver the new councilor will have, but from the outset we cannot find coherence in her reasoning when she says: “You are a resident, you are a technician, and you are given the possibility of exercising a political responsibility. Out of coherence, I had to say yes,” which could lead us to misunderstand and understand that Itziar González only considers the exercise of political responsibility possible, as a resident and as a technician, from a position in the public administration, just the opposite of what is usually the case…
But if the Ciutat Vella district is a complete mess, we will have to see how Itziar González handles the hot potato of Barceloneta, a neighborhood that, unimaginably, had until recently been outside the spotlight of the gentrifying machinery, the promotional campaigns of the Barcelona brand, and the omnipotent tourism industry of the city; she also talks about this in the interview, so we shall see.
