I live in that land of equipment that was never developed until we let some houses shared by older people, facing the sea, near the Anís del Mono. This walk is magnificent, the beach endures and those inflatable breakwaters [1] that they put a few meters from the sand, which swell or deflate depending on whether it is temporary, withstand the onslaught of the waves very well and are effective at maintaining a thickness enough sand to have a beach all year round.
The petroleum bridge is still the space most visited by everyone who comes to see the city on weekends. The marine biotopes [2] that located the head of the bridge have filled us with diving and fishing activity. I still remember the project, from 2010, kept in a drawer until someone said “wow, but it costs four euros!” and unblock it. It is a bit the same as inflatable jetties. The city bet and today we have more beach than other coastal cities.
We also invested 30 years ago, reinforcing the collectors that carry the water to the sea with the anti-discharge devices [3] that are in their final section, when they are about to enter the sea. That investment that the water company made us and we have been paying little by little has resolved the spillages that occurred when it rained more than necessary quite well.
You will like how all this of the Three Chimneys [4] has turned out. Who was going to tell us, that we would have this park, the new neighborhood and so many offices and this important search HUB. It is spectacular… .There are people from all over who are trying to bring their companies here, so that the force of this environment has changed the fate of the old industrial estates that years ago were condemned to remain old and without added value activities. This mixture of uses, with residential, offices and industrial activities linked to economic tractors such as new energies, telecommunications and audiovisual, and medical devices have turned our destiny upside down.
And we will go to the port. [5] We decided to promote it by 4.0 economy companies and powerful leisure and restaurant activities, and we have a new PIER competing with the Barcelona Tech City building in Palau de Mar. The commercial ceiling was changed to carry professional offices and we were totally right. We have engineers, architects, designers, even lawyers … they work in the Port, they bring their clients, they eat in the area … there are even those who take them out for a boat ride … the canal has driven the area in a definitive way. twenty five years.
I also want you to see the CACI [6]. Do you remember? The building next to the Port, made of exposed brick, nailed to the building I was telling you about Palau de Mar? That center is looking for that was installed has brought us everything from spin-offs and companies in the sector, which occupy the warehouses in the Industrial Street area. We have a tram stop in front, taking advantage of the land left free by the train, which now passes through “the old highway” [7].
“The old highway” … we are happy to say it! They are still working and we have not finished the work, but the burial is a reality, and now we have a connecting axis with Barcelona and the Maresme where new neighbors, new public spaces and facilities coexist. We have sewn Badalona. There is no such thing as “we go down to Badalona”. This change is spectacular, and the burying that has been done, with the tunnel boring machine of the old L9 drilling holes and making public transport pass, has freed us a lot of soil. There are cars, but this axis is no longer a highway, it is a thoroughfare, a Gran Vía if you wish, and the change is very noticeable.
The other spectacular change is the axis of knowledge in Health that goes from Can Ruti to the Polígono de Can Ribó. From mountain to sea. The decision of Can Ruti [8] to grow in the urban fabric, to move activity in the city, was a success. They no longer occupy a mountain. Look at the BCIN building [9]. It could be finished, and today it hosts university studies and spin-offs from the world of search that is done in the hospital environment. It is a brutal change, that rebound has turned us around the polygon. We now have medical device companies that produce what campus search develops with its people. We have truly built a benchmark innovation and health district in Europe. A care Hospital and a basic search in the mountains; the spin off or companies that leave, and all the medical training in the BCIN area, and when the medical prototype of the spin off is made, a support area such as Can Ribó [10] for their industrial production.
By the way, in a few months we will hold the World Medical Devices Congress, here in Guixeres, and the people who will come will be housed in that Post Office building [11] that has been destroyed in the Badalona Center, which has been converted into a hotel, and in hotels del Puerto and Navarra avenue, and that of El Màgic and ours and emblematic Miramar … small but charming because of so many people who still come to Barcelona.
We are a good place to live. We have the beach and the mountains as always, but we have remade our industrial estates, we have recovered our heritage, we have specialized and we have attracted new people to live with us. The city council exists but it is no longer limited to moving papers, we have turned it into a local revitalization agency. We are in all the games that are played in the world for cities that are not capitals. We have enough income to support those who cannot continue, but we have built a school-business synergy that works. The people here know that they will have a future. They don’t go away. This environment, and the neighborhoods that we have connected in a friendly way, with the extensive green network [12] that provides a park for every 20,000 residents, has changed our lives.
Today we play, we have a game. Euroleague with La Peña and first round with Badalona. We already had the infrastructure, a magnificent pavilion and a good soccer field. We needed to be a prosperous city to have muscles and pose great challenges. Specializing in Health and Energy has made us grow in companies, some that we already had here decades ago, and we have good sponsors and full fields.
By the way, one day we will go to the immersive exhibition of the Museum of the Roman Badalona [13], it is an experience that takes us to the roots. Today there were people from Tarragona watching it, I think they want to copy it for us.
I am looking forward to seeing you, Badalona.
Ferran Falcó, President of the Restarting Badalona association
[1] This technology is shaped by the CIMNE center and a pilot test with European funds for innovation is planned. One of the chosen places will be the Ebro Delta. [2] This project was developed by the City Council’s environmental department between 2007 and 2011. [3] Anti-DSUs are an available technique that could be financed with public-private collaboration, or ERDF funds. [4] The Urban Master Plan must be definitively approved in the third quarter of 2021. The use of private and public facilities are proposed and work is being done to obtain a European Recovery Fund. [5] The Port may propose a new use plan to complete its development. If it were to do so by prioritizing offices for companies, we could have a competitive workspace aligned with the technological vocation of many initiatives that exist in Barcelona around old heritage buildings. [6] The City Council could concession the building directly to the Search center that has been interested, or put it out to tender to be occupied. [7] There is a commitment from the Generalitat to draw up an urban plan to deal with the highway, and also a resolution of the last general policy debate in Parliament that urges the Government to form an urban consortium while drafting the plan. The city council has foreseen half a million euros in its budget to commission works associated with its transformation. [8] The Can Ruti campus is in the process of reordering and regularizing its equipment in the Serralada, and it is also working on proposals to be introduced to the urban fabric. [9] One of the growth possibilities of Can Ruti was to finish the meters available in the BCIN, to locate the companies that arise from the basic search carried out on campus, as well as the training of professional degrees related to health. [10] Imagining the specialization of the Polygon in medical devices linked to the activity of Can Ruti is consistent with projects to create health innovation districts in other European cities. [11] The traditional Post Office building has been in a provisional situation for 15 years, ending up being rebuilt to continue being a Post Office. A missed opportunity to propose an emblematic action to locate a Hotel in the center of the city, which should not be ruled out in the future. [12] Badalona could consider entering the European incentive programs to bet to become green cities. A network of parks, with the conversion of urban spaces that today are not green enough, is plausible, together with an investment in the improvement of the existing green, in accordance with the prescriptions of works already carried out that diagnose its state.[13] The city must specialize, and in the cultural field the main asset continues to be the Roman city. Investing in technology can put the Museum in the wheel of the best museums in the world in this area.
