La Barceloneta comes together to decide its future. SOURCE: THE VANGUARD

Various entities such as neighborhood associations and the luxury marina are collaborating on a plan to create jobs and improve training in the Ostia neighborhood.

Usually it is the administrations that present strategic plans, but Barceloneta has done it the other way around. Neighbors and professionals of the neighborhood (in the promoter group there are from neighborhood associations to the group of merchants and industrialists, the fishermen's guild, the Consorci El Far or the Adult School) yesterday presented a pact for the occupation and development of this neighborhood, from now until 2020. In the initial project there are already very defined ideas, such as that the benefits of the tourist tax are transformed into social actions or that the businesses in the area hire unemployed neighbors.

The Barceloneta Proa a la Mar project has already been joined, in addition to its promoters, such as the Barceloneta and l'Òstia neighborhood associations or the El Far Consortium, a score of entities and companies. These include both the ABA (Barceloneta Alert Association) or the Diu Prou Platform, such as Port 2000, the new Marina Port Vell or the Marina Barcelona 92. "If we want to make a leap into the future it is important to seek collaboration.

"La Barceloneta belongs to everyone," said Patricia Jiménez on behalf of the Consorci El Far after recalling the high unemployment rate in the neighborhood or the high percentage of young people who drop out of their studies. This situation contrasts with the fact that Barceloneta is both one of the areas with the greatest tourist presence and visitors with a high purchasing power in the city (the Marina Port Vell, the most luxurious of those in Barcelona, is An example).

"It is a plan that arises from three participatory days with about 200 people from all over the neighborhood. The difference is that: it is a development plan that arises from below and that we now transfer upwards," said Anna Lite, referring to the City Council of Barcelona. For now, three political parties have offered their support: ERC, the CUP and Barcelona en Comú.

The project, in addition to betting on working together with companies in the area to create jobs and define the training of potential workers (it has already begun to collaborate with the Port of Barcelona and will knock on the doors of the Consorci de la Zona Franca), has among its priorities to fight against school dropouts. It is also sought that the marine essence is present in the classrooms and in the streets, that it is valued, for example, the fishing port.

"In addition to the impact of the tax benefits, the closed tourist apartments could also be used for social rent," said the president of the Association of Neighbors of l'Òstia, Pepa Picas, present at the event along with her counterpart from the Association of Neighbors of Barceloneta, Jaume Valls.

SOURCE: THE VANGUARD