An initiative by “Platform Raval per Viure” has seen Barcelona’s new mayor Xavier Trias receive hundreds of identical Christmas cards.
The cards display a “letters soup”, a puzzle containing various words – 12 in total – such as “Robatoris” (Robbery), “Prostitucio” (Prostitution), “Drogues” (Drugs) and “Sorroll” (Noise). They group says the words describe what are “daily problems” in the district of Raval, which is a multiethnic area that sits between Las Ramblas and Montjuic.
First reported by Meritxell M. Pauné in La Vanguardia, the postcards were sent by residents and business owners on the streets of “Robadors, Sant Rafael, Sant Pau, Hospital, Sant Climent, Rambla del Raval, Nou de Sadurní, Espalter, Sant Ramon and De L’Om.”
The group stated: “Despite political change in the city, problems remain and there are no clear signs that there is an interest in finding a solution. We want to remind Mr. Trias that the problems continue.”
Robbed in Barcelona engaged with Mr. Trias on the issue of crime in Barcelona whilst he was campaigning for the position he now holds. Read his response here.
Christmas Puzzle sent by La Plataforma Raval per Viure to the Mayor
The postcards were also sent to the government of Catalunya, the Catalan police, the Guardia Urbana, political parties, media and other communications organisations.
Two years ago the same group sent the then Mayor Jordi Hereu 500 Christmas cards (as reported here in La Vanguardia). For taglines on the cards they used: “Raval: S.O.S, people live here.”, “postcard that no tourist passing through Raval would buy” and “Is this something you find when you enter or leave your home? In Raval, yes.”
The group then described their problems as being: “pimping, violence and aggression in the streets, stealing every day, stores open late at night, and drug sales, noise that will not let us sleep.”
Little has changed in the last two years, it seems.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
I wonder if the mayor is going to respond.. btw in 4 years I think crime in the city centre worsened.. but well it’s mostly the tourists that get hit.. who cares! ..why do they hide behind laws they should have changed? Why is police corrupt keeping the gangs in place.. and act on a documentary a little to friendly with local known pickpockets.
Perhaps RiBCN could make a similar graphic that users of the site could print out and post to the mayor to tell him that the city is wonderful, but something really needs to be done about the levels of crime, especially crimes directed at tourists. Perhaps we could remind him that we may not have a vote, but every day thousands of euros are being stolen that could have been spent in shops, restaurants and bars in the city.
That’s a good idea. We’ll do something. Coming from different locations around the world it’ll probably be impactful.