neighbourhood

By 21 August thousands of people are expected to have attended Gràcia’s local street festival, organised around its Patron Saint’s day. The programme of 'Festes de Gràcia' includes Catalan traditional human towers (called 'castells'), live music, exhibitions, activities for kids and much more. However, one of the most popular traditions in Gràcia during this festival is the street decoration. Indeed, most public spaces are included in an amateur competition where groups of neighbours embellish their own streets and squares so that many spots in the neighbourhood are thematically decorated. Although locals play a very important role in the festival, each year thousands of visitors, from the rest of Barcelona, but also from all over the world, come to the neighbourhood and take part in the celebration, which is gaining popularity worldwide.

In the last few years, tourism has boomed in Barcelona. In 2014, the Catalan capital was the 4^th most visited city in Europe and 16^th in the world, with almost 8 million foreign visitors that year. Especially during high season, visitors literally invade some parts of the city such as Les Rambles, Antoni Gaudí's main creations and the urban beaches. However, there is much more to Barcelona than just this. Indeed, the city has 73 different neighbourhoods, divided up into 10 districts, each one with its own particular soul and history. For example, inside the district of Sant Martí – just outside Barcelona's historical centre – the neighbourhood of Poblenou is located. Historically known as the 'Catalan Manchester' for its role as the city's industrial centre in the 19^th and early 20^th century, nowadays it is becoming a very attractive place to live for many young people. Strongly revitalised after the 1992 Olympic Games and currently characterised by a rich architectural landscape and vibrant artistic scene, it represents the city's new business and technology district, being also very interesting for tourists willing to step outside of the usual routes.

Barcelona is the 4^th most visited city in Europe and the 16^th in the world, welcoming 8 million tourists each year. It is acknowledged to be Spain's industrial hub where international trade fairs and conferences are being held. In addition, it is one of the top destinations among Erasmus students and the main cruise ship harbour in Europe. However, thanks to cheap airlines, Barcelona has also developed a reputation for low-cost tourism that often focuses on holidays of beach, booze and partying. On the one hand, this shows the young and fun atmosphere of the city and contributes significantly to the economy. On the other hand, according to locals, the so-called ''drunken tourism'' tarnishes Barcelona's reputation and has negative impacts. The City Council aims to control this kind of tourism and is currently attempting to introduce stricter regulations for holiday rent apartments. It has already banned land-based bar crawls around the city and wants to ensure the legality of alcohol-based boat trips as it does not have control over the city's waters.  

Barcelona’s famous annual street festival, ‘Festa Major de Gràcia’ kicked-off on Wednesday evening with streets intricately decorated by neighbours and live music being played well in to the night. The event, in its 197^th year, draws an estimated 1.5 million visitors and has activities for all ages including: firework displays, ‘castellers’ - Catalan human towers, decorated streets and open air concerts taking place in 47 stages. It was traditionally a religious festival for locals of the neighbourhood, but for the last five decades it has become popular with Catalonians. Furthermore, in recent years, foreigners have also discovered it. Each year the festival begins on the 15^th of August and lasts for six days.

The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment has stressed that the Government’s objective is to reduce unemployment by half by 2014. The plan foresees ten measures, with a special focus on the long-term unemployed. Some of the measures include incentives to SME companies to hire the long-term unemployed, collaborating with private temporary work agencies, enlarging the network of education classrooms and relocating staff from the Catalan Public Employment Service to provide job search council and other direct services.

The Welfare Project of the La Caixa’s Foundation aims to foster social cohesion in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of immigrants in Barcelona, Tortosa and Salt. The project has specified 17 zones throughout Spain that it will work with to develop community intervention models for the next 3 years.

The Catalan Government will invest 19 million and the Spanish Government 21 million in the renovation works of 10 cities in Catalonia.