“…on saturdays we went out, and she and her sister remained with our neighbor, miss Maria, and wouldn’t come with us. […] We would have taken them to the cinema, to Mcdonald’s, but they didn’t want! They wanted to stay here in the alley“.
This short video documentary by Jordi Secall, Manel Muntaner, Yolanda Bermúdez and Chema Alonso (2004) describes the demolition of the small “Passatge Cusidó”, just on the side of Barcelona’s Diagonal. A real estate company, “Espais” (recently under trial for corruption within the Caso Pretoria) took advantage of the forced expropiation of this small alley, executed by Barcelona’s City Council within the “22@” urban renewal project for the neighborhood of Poblenou. More info in this research draft written in 2006 by our group.
- [Update: five years later, the residents now relocated in Diagonal n.55 are still waiting for a solution from the Supreme Court. Video, october 2011]