
Superblocks: Barcelona’s plan to take back streets from cars - diggan
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/9/18300797/barcelona-spain-superblocks-urban-plan
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pauldavis
I have lived in Barcelona for about four years, and have followed Superblock
development closely. Last Friday, I visited the site in the St. Antoni area.
It was awesome to see the former intersection filled with people. They were
seated, standing, walking, talking, having a drink, playing. It is a stunning
transformation and an awesome improvement in the city. It makes me want to
move to that neighborhood - Superblocks won't reach my area for a couple of
years.

~~~
justaguyhere
Are there any US cities doing experiments similar to this? All I hear in the
news are NY's subway problems and crumbling infrastructure across the nation
while politicians do nothing. A whole lot of innovation in the public sector
seems to be happening in Europe and Asia.

~~~
hylaride
Times Square itself was mostly pedestrianized about a decade ago and a
smattering of other cities have done similar things.

The problem is that the way postwar cities were built in North America has
meant that the overwhelming number of people still need a car to _get to_ the
pedestrianized areas, so over the years most of them have failed.

~~~
alistairSH
I was going the comment that I wish American suburbs (even the inner-suburbs
that are dense by US standards) were laid out in such a way that "Superblock"
style redevelopment was possible.

The neighborhood in which I live (Reston, VA) was originally supposed to have
several walkable "town centers", but all but two of them were built as
standard strip malls, and one of the two that was built to original plan was
demolished for a strip mall in 1994.

By happy coincidence, I can walk to work. But, grocery shopping is still a car
ride away. And even if I could walk, I'd have to cross giant asphalt
wastelands filled with distracted drivers.

~~~
techsupporter
Another case in point: Seattle has an outdoor mall called University Village.
On a map, it looks like a walkable urban paradise but actually being there is
a dramatically different story. There's a wildly-popular multi-use trail--the
Burke-Gilman--that goes right next to the mall but direct access to UVillage
from the Burke is not well-marked and involves crossing at least two roads.
Access by bus is OK but you can tell that pedestrian access doesn't rank in
the top five of priorities since one set of bus stops ends in three steps and
the other set of bus stops accesses a pedestrian path that's almost always
closed for one reason or another due to "construction."

Meanwhile, UVillage has an extensive set of interior streets with pretend stop
signs for pedestrian crossings that drivers often ignore. And the mall owners
keep building parking garages, closing off sidewalks for a year of
construction in the process.

I have high hopes for the rebuild of Northgate Mall, on Seattle's north end
next to a light rail station. The owners of Northgate filed their 129-page
development plan with the city and they spend quite a few pages on how
pedestrians will access the property, where people can congregate and play and
exist without cars, and how the two additional interior streets will have
calming and slowing measures to put pedestrians first. If the owners of
Northgate Mall's written plans come to fruition as written, I hope UVillage's
business will drop so they'll be forced to adapt in the same way.

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IlegCowcat
Ahh this is a new article from 2019. I remember the 2016 Vox video when they
were putting in the first Superblocks.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORzsubQA_M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORzsubQA_M)
Good to see Barcelona is going ahead with the Superblocks. Found a 2018 video
by those great Streetfilms folks:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq2yd4QgL5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq2yd4QgL5I)

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Animats
Superblocks again! Popular idea in 1930s-1950s public housing. Peter Cooper
Village in NYC is laid out that way.[1] The units near the roads are more
desirable and higher priced.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_Town%E2%80%93Peter_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_Town%E2%80%93Peter_Cooper_Village)

~~~
jdm2212
There aren't a whole lot of businesses or transit stops inside Stuy Town and
Peter Cooper Village [1]. Barcelona, in contrast, is apparently planning to
encourage multi-use development.

[1] I considered moving there, but much of it is actually not convenient to
the subway or Citibike. And my prospective roommate wanted to be closer to the
East Village. So, anecdotally, lack of transit and businesses is what makes
the interior less desirable, not lack of car access.

~~~
cylinder
Stuy Town is great. Gets so much hate. But I actually miss walking my dog
around Stuy Town and speaking with elderly locals who had lived in the same
apartment for 50 years more than anything else in NYC. The inner walking loop
and fountain are great and they added a cafe a few years ago. Only issue is
the distance from the subway.

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noelrock
I note the opening says: "(Municipal elections today, May 26, will provide a
crucial test for the plan.)"

Does anybody with familiarity with the area have a sense of how that test
panned out? I can look up the basic results but wouldn't be familiar with how
parties stood on the plan, and accordingly if people who backed it were
successful or otherwise.

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darkwater
Ada Colau, which was the major behind the Superblocks proposal, was elected
once again, although with some turmoil (basically she's from a left-wing party
and got elected thanks to the votes of the previously France Prime Minister
Manuel Valls who was running with a right-wing party). More info
[https://www.thelocal.es/20190616/barcelona-mayor-
reelected-a...](https://www.thelocal.es/20190616/barcelona-mayor-reelected-
after-beating-separatist)

~~~
elcomet
How is Valls seen in Spain? His public image in France was not amazing when he
left (he was a socialist but left the party to join macron, and now you're
saying he joined the right wing? )

~~~
slx26
well, spain... keep in mind he's only involved in the politics of barcelona,
which is the capital of catalonia, which is only a part of spain. and he
didn't even get that many votes, despite pairing with a well-established party
as "ciudadanos". which have already broken the deal with him anyway.

in general, I'd say the consensus is that he's an opportunist. he knows how to
play politics, but he's an opportunist. we are aware of his image in france.

in my opinion, he only joined ciudadanos for convenience, so he could enter
the game in a decent position, and now he will attempt a transition towards
the socialist party (if they want him, and it's still way too early for this,
we probably need to wait 4 years until he's free of his current responsibility
in barcelona). this is highly speculative on my part, but it's the way I see
it. enter the scene through ciudadanos, and then distance himself through his
actions, not leaving ciudadanos himself, but rather being rejected by the
party itself. first by criticising the idea of ciudadanos being part of an
agreement in madrid to have the support of an extreme-right party (Vox) so the
right-wing parties could have the city council, and later, just a few days
ago, by giving Ada Colau the support to be named mayor in barcelona, in
exchange for "nothing". he's good at navigating the waters, he has experience
at that, but everyone knows he's just an opportunist. he's already in the
middle of the first scandals regarding some businessmen paying him 20.000€
each month for his involvement in politics. anyway, there are bigger things at
play in catalonia with the independence process and all that, so in general
people doesn't even care much about him. he's lucky to have that.

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toper-centage
I was hoping for more pictures. I wonder how this is different than other
shared roads around Europe.

~~~
diggan
It's a series of 5 articles, each article having at least ten pictures. Not
sure if you missed those, or you're asking for even more pictures. Could
probably dig out some from the city government if it's the latter.

~~~
RHSeeger
I didn't even notice it linked out to stories. I read it as five slides.

