- The city council will maintain the investment rhythm in these facilities, with 96 million euros until 2023
- One in four euros will be for maintenance of all the enclosures, to which the pandemic has given prominence
If all the political parties that have led the mayor of Barcelona in the last five years agree on something, it is in the promotion of traditional markets as a motor of local commerce and, therefore, of neighborhood cohesion. A shared approach that has promoted the progressive reform or updating of the 39 food precincts in the city, based on modernizing facilities, adjusting the supply of stalls to current demand and providing them with integrated supermarkets and, when possible, parking spaces. . The model, sometimes questioned by the millionaire investments that it implies and the apparent contradictions about the use of the car for shopping or hypers (most recent case, the Abaceria), will not lose ground in the middle of the pandemic: the city council foresees a total investment of 96 million euros between 2020 and 2023 in major interventions in seven markets that mean putting the final stretch of renovations in historic buildings on track, and numerous maintenance tasks in the rest. Without forgetting to take a step forward (2.7 million of the game) in the digitization of these equipment.
Most of the budget (70,625,100 euros) will go to the reforms of the Abaceria, San Andreu, Horta, Montserrat, Besòs, Galvany and Sagrada Família. Among the rest of the missions, which take on importance in this mandate, it is worth highlighting (within the sustainability slogans) the implementation of LED lighting and improvements in air conditioning and recycling systems. Markets have always been a priority in the area of Commerce, but the pandemic has strengthened their role, as epicenters of the supply of neighborhoods in times of restricted mobility, as highlighted this Tuesday by the Councilor for Markets, Montse Ballarín, and the Lieutenant of Mayor of Economic Promotion, Jaume Collboni. Both have announced the investment plan in a visit to the Sant Andreu construction market, one of the mainstays of the mandate.