Valence pedestrianized its squares at the request of residents

View from the baroque balcony of the imposing town hall of Valencia, on the east coast of Spain, the town hall square offers a ballet of bicycles, skateboarders and strollers, lulled by the sound of the monumental fountain, near from which a young woman is reading a book, sitting on a bench. Before its 12,000 square meters were cut off from car traffic in May 2020, 10,000 vehicles and eleven bus lines passed through it every day. Since then, on the only service road that has remained open, traffic has been residual.

Many other squares in the historic center suffered the same fate. Some, like that of Rojas Clemente, were pedestrianized at the request of residents during votes in the framework of municipal participatory budgets. So many places once covered with cars, now colonized by pedestrians, cafes and children’s parks.

“We defend the right to the city, a new urban model in which people walk more, take bicycles or public transport, and reinvest the public space previously reserved for cars”, explains the municipal councilor in charge of mobility, Giuseppe Grezzi. The city has a watchword: “Democratize” the urban landscape.

Since the arrival of the alternative left to power in 2015, Spain’s third largest city – 800,000 inhabitants – has thus recovered 150,000 square meters of roads for pedestrians. And the “Valence, city of places” program will not stop there. The railway tracks which cross the city will be buried and covered with new gardens. The Place de la Reine will become, this summer, a vast esplanade cut off from traffic. Traffic will be pacified around the magnificent central market and the Lonja de la Seda, the 15th century stock exchange.^e century, listed as World Heritage by Unesco… A new development for a city that has changed in twenty years.

A “humanistic town planning”

The auspicious days of the 1990s and 2000s were one of vast infrastructures and major elitist events – from the construction of the futuristic buildings of the City of Arts and Sciences by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava to the overhaul of the port to house the Cup. of America and receive the Formula 1 circuit. A modernization under the leadership of the conservative mayor Rita Barbera, who remained at the head of the city for twenty-four years (1991-2015), who also seriously indebted the city and the region, and is the bedrock of many corruptions.

Now the city wants to be ” friendly “, thanks to a “Humanistic town planning”, explains Giuseppe Grezzi, elected representative of Italian origin from the local environmentalist party, riding his folding bicycle, for a tour of the city, its historic center with medieval alleys, shopping streets and the superb Turia gardens, laid out over 9 kilometers in the bed of the Turia river, the course of which was diverted in the 1970s to avoid flooding. Joggers and families stroll there, not far from the Palais des Arts, where, in December, the opera will be performed. Madame Butterfly.

“The existing cycle paths have been connected to each other and the number of kilometers has increased by 30% in five years, reaching 40 kilometers, which has made it possible to see the use of the bicycle jump by 214%” , he adds, stopped at a traffic light where signs indicate the time required to get to various places of interest, both on foot and by bike: university, beaches, cathedral within twenty minutes.

Almost everything is accessible on two wheels: the city, compact, stretches around a diagonal of less than 12 kilometers. “It has the advantages of a big city while having kept a human size, close to the sea and the mountain, bordered by the Albufera natural park, with few traffic jams, a mild climate all year round , a cosmopolitan atmosphere and a very reasonable cost of living ”, explains Maité Coscola, administrative manager of the expatriate services company Globex. After a survey of 15,000 people, taking into account the cost of living and housing, access to health care, security or the climate, Valence was ranked “best city in the world in which to live” by the community. of InterNations expatriates.

Rents have doubled

While strolling the streets of the fashionable district of Ruzafa, very popular with digital nomads and young expatriate families for its lively atmosphere, its trendy bars and nightclubs, its small art galleries, its café-bookstores, and its old colorful bourgeois buildings, Maité Coscola confirms the boom in the city. “It is in Ruzafa and in the Carmen area that the expatriates are jostling each other. It is an easy-going city, where each district has many local shops, schools and markets, and we forge real neighborhood relationships. “

“For people who come from Holland, Belgium or France, this city is sure to be a godsend, but we, who are paid with Spanish salaries, suffer the price increases they cause”, plague Fermin, seated at a terrace on Puerto Rico Street, in the Ruzafa district, with his daughter and a friend. “Rent prices have doubled in the neighborhood, assures this 42-year-old contemporary artist who pays 750 euros for an apartment of nearly 80 square meters. Four years ago, I was paying 300 euros less for an apartment that has been turned into a tourist rental. “

“Valencia attracts both retirees, who come to enjoy its three hundred days of sunshine a year and appreciate its safety, as well as students who arrived on Erasmus to party or families who want a better quality of life, emphasizes Sylvain Domper, founder of the Expat-Valencia site, which helps French people settle in the city. Aware of the city’s growth potential, these investors, moreover, have stormed certain old neighborhoods to give them a second life – like that of the fishermen, Cabanyal. Previously threatened with ruin, they are in the process of becoming too much of a booze.

The risk of gentrification of the city is taken seriously by the municipality, which has implemented very restrictive regulations for the owners of tourist accommodation, which has sharply slowed their progress. If prices have increased in recent years, they remain out of step with those of Madrid or Barcelona. Valence is determined not to fall victim to the enthusiasm it arouses, in order to maintain an enviable quality of life.