Javier López Menacho, in the riverbed in Valencia, where he moved a year ago from Barcelona. Mònica Torres
"Well, that's it.
I'm leaving BCN.
24 years here have been enough.
I'm leaving like so many people and probably for the same reasons.
Leaving is a trend ”.
On any given afternoon, social networks become thermometers of things that happen.
It happened with the tweet that accompanies this text.
From Agnès Font, who works as press officer for the Capitan Swing publishing house in the city.
In a few minutes a thread was formed with responses from friends and acquaintances.
They regretted it, they assured that they had done the same, or that they were about to do it.
Leave the city.
To the invitation of a colleague to return, Font responded with the reason that she tops the list of arguments for leaving: "If the flats can be paid at a decent price, I do not rule out returning in the future."
Well that's it.
I'm leaving Barcelona.
24 years here have been enough.
I'm leaving like so many people and probably for the same reasons.
Leaving is the trend.
— Agnès Font 🗯️ (@AgnesFnt) November 23, 2022
The reading of the municipal register on January 1 of this year indicated that the city lost population in 2021 for the second year, partly due to the excess mortality of the pandemic, but also due to a negative migratory balance of 16,000 people among those who arrived (117,300 registered in the register) and those who left (133,327 casualties).
This is the highest emigration recorded in half a century, said the Municipal Data Office of the City Council when it presented the data.
Getting in touch with those who responded to Font allows you to broaden the list of arguments of those who have deserted as a Barcelonan, were born in the city or have lived in it for decades.
Namely: the aggressiveness of the labor market, prices, the worsening of public spaces, the lack of greenery, overcrowding, doubts about raising children here, a change of mind with the pandemic and teleworking... "In the background there are people who he wants a sustainable and healthy way of life, work and free time.
In Barcelona you compete because your living conditions are at stake”, says one of the interviewees, who has started life in Valencia.
They are all in their 40s and share the privilege of being able to telework or be public employees.
I have been living in another city for a year and life is now calmer, without so much stress and financial demands.
Good luck, I'm sure you'll be great.
This is how I felt: https://t.co/MKzEeyBtWc
— Javier López (@LopezMenacho) November 24, 2022
“The city has stopped being pleasant, it has become hostile”
Font lives surrounded by boxes on the floor that she leaves to go to Canet de Mar. She acknowledges that "an hour by train was not the idea", with her partner they wanted to stay closer, although the 90-meter floor with high ceilings for 850 euros that they will rent in Canet does not exist in Barcelona.
Font arrived in Barcelona 24 years ago, at the age of 18, from Castellterçol (Moianès, Barcelona).
Beyond the price of the apartments - "there should be a regulation of prices", she considers -, she has the feeling that "after the pandemic, it may be a shock
doctrine
, but it seems that everyone is going to get the most out of it.”
It refers to the prices of daily issues such as having a drink or eating from the menu.
“The city has become hostile, it has stopped being friendly: not being able to have a beer if you don't eat;
have lunch in an hour… I want to be prudent and not accuse, because in some cases there will be reasons, but I wonder where the grandmothers can go to have a coffee”.
I have been living in another city for a year and life is now calmer, without so much stress and financial demands.
Good luck, I'm sure you'll be great.
This is how I felt: https://t.co/MKzEeyBtWc
— Javier López (@LopezMenacho) November 24, 2022
"Aggressiveness and labor hypercompetition are the law of life"
The first response to Font's tweet, 11 minutes later, was Javier López Menacho (40 years old): "I have been living in another city for a year and life is now calmer, without so much stress and economic demands."
Born in Jerez de la Frontera, he arrived in Barcelona in 2009 and has been in Valencia for a year, where he has moved with his partner for a compelling reason: they are in an apartment owned by her family that frees them from paying for housing.
"We were close to 1,000 euros, the percentage of income that rent takes made us rethink life so that it was more sustainable, so as not to tremble the day your heater breaks down and that month you have a dentist."
In a farewell text published on his blog, López Menacho lamented that of the 12 people with whom he shared a flat in Barcelona, none remain in the city.
"The first reason was housing, but the phenomenon is transversal: sustainability, gentrification and the neoliberal language of 'we adapt to market circumstances' when the rent goes up, the lack of green spaces...".
And he highlights “labour aggressiveness, hyper-competition between talent that comes together in the same space and, as companies know that they can be replaced, they can explode.
Competitiveness is the law of life”.
He adds: “Here the rhythm and the work climate is more placid and reconcilable;
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
gentrification and the neoliberal language of 'we adapt to market circumstances' when the rent goes up, the lack of green spaces…”.
And he highlights “labour aggressiveness, hyper-competition between talent that comes together in the same space and, as companies know that they can be replaced, they can explode.
Competitiveness is the law of life”.
He adds: “Here the rhythm and the work climate is more placid and reconcilable;
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
gentrification and the neoliberal language of 'we adapt to market circumstances' when the rent goes up, the lack of green spaces…”.
And he highlights “labour aggressiveness, hyper-competition between talent that comes together in the same space and, as companies know that they can be replaced, they can explode.
Competitiveness is the law of life”.
He adds: “Here the rhythm and the work climate is more placid and reconcilable;
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
And he highlights “labour aggressiveness, hyper-competition between talent that comes together in the same space and, as companies know that they can be replaced, they can explode.
Competitiveness is the law of life”.
He adds: “Here the rhythm and the work climate is more placid and reconcilable;
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
And he highlights “labour aggressiveness, hyper-competition between talent that comes together in the same space and, as companies know that they can be replaced, they can explode.
Competitiveness is the law of life”.
He adds: “Here the rhythm and the work climate is more placid and reconcilable;
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
In Barcelona, people work 10 hours that on the weekend leave behind people who just want to go to the sofa to watch Netflix”.
Both he and his wife, both employed in technology, can work from home.
“I have a quality of life that I never dreamed of before,” he concludes.
Jo ho vaig fer al juliol after 22 years to Barcelona.
— Cesc Cornet (@SocEnCesc) November 24, 2022
“When I was 20 years old, I took advantage of what Barcelona offered me.
Not now"
Cesc Cornet (43 years old) and her husband are teachers.
Both are from outside Barcelona (La Cellera de Ter, Girona; and Igualada, Barcelona) and have lived in the city for more than two decades.
But the arrival of a nationally adopted child marked a before and after.
"Before, the city was different, it has changed and you don't take advantage of it in the same way, but there were many factors that held me back: raising a child close to the family, having a job that we can do in Girona, housing prices [have sold the apartment in the city and they have bought in the town], that you have the feeling that you pay more than what you have to pay all the time, the queues for everything [doctor, park...], the tourist pressure, the pollution, the bad smells , the constant buzz of traffic…”, he explains.
In La Cellera, with the same salary they have gained purchasing power,
they pay “less than in Barcelona with a parking space and views of the mountains and the river”.
The couple who bought them the apartment, in Sagrada Familia, "are not from Barcelona," he says.
“And they imagine their life in the city as I imagined it.
It's like a chain."
I left in January after Nissan closed, now I am in León and I must say that I am in heaven.
— #MOU#electromariachigigoló (@MoureRoberto) November 24, 2022
"Barcelona, like Madrid, has become hostile to anyone who is not passing through"
In the Twitter thread, the reasons for leaving Barcelona are very varied.
Roberto Moure (47 years old) responded to Font like this: "I left in January after Nissan closed, now I am in León and I must say that I am in glory."
It is a "bittersweet" feeling, he explains from his hometown: "It is losing a part of your life, for many years, 18, the environment, the people, the routines, but also to breathe because the closure of the factory was a process long and painful.
And he adds: “I feel Catalan from minute one.
I like the language, the people, the tradition, but there has been a point at which, just like Madrid has happened to me the two times I have had to travel this year, I get the impression that Barcelona has become hostile to everyone who is not just passing through”.
Moure is studying to take out oppositions in the city where his parents are and explains that for two years he will be able to live on unemployment benefits.
"Without having to eat the severance pay," she clarifies, "which in Barcelona with the cost of living would have been impossible."
“It was a whirlwind during the week, wanting to go out on the weekend and not wanting to return on Sunday”
This is the second course in the town for the family of the architect Eva Rus (49 years old), born in Barcelona and who lived between the city and the Vallès as a child, and then abroad.
She has lived in the big city for 24 years with her husband, a German, always in the center.
“First in the Raval, hoping it would change like other neighbourhoods, then in Via Laietana, waiting for pacification, then in Bruc street and with a store office in Sant Antoni.
Between the attack on La Rambla, the
procés
and the pandemic, life in the city and for the office changed.
When it was not one thing, it was the other, ”she says.
Adding rents for housing, office-shop and car, they came to pay more than 3,000 euros per month.
“We were not compensated for what the city offers and you can do for what it costs, it seems that you work for the real estate owners.
It was a whirlwind during the week, wanting to go out on the weekend and not wanting to return on Sunday ”, he recounts.
They closed everything and went to Castellterçol (2,600 inhabitants), where they had been spending the summer for two years.
They telework and visit clients nearby or travel on European projects.
They have three children.
“Living in Barcelona, due to the expenses, generates fragility;
now we are more rested, we even have more physical power, the quality of the air has no color ”, he summarizes.
Victor and Eva, with their children Pep and Mia.
They are teachers and as soon as one of the two has a place in Puigcerdà (Girona), they will leave Barcelona, even if the other does not have a job.Albert Garcia
"As soon as one of us has a place, we leave, even if the other does not have a job"
Eva Morros (35 years old) and her husband Víctor Guasch (44) are from Barcelona, the two teachers, friends of Cesc Cornet, and it had never occurred to them to leave.
Until the pandemic.
Some vacations had rented an apartment in Cerdanya (Girona) and the summer of the pandemic, from the initial 15 days they stretched up to two months... and then the entire course.
Her youngest son was born and they spent the entire low school there, almost an entire course.
"Going back has been horrible, the idea is to ask for a place in a public school there for Víctor."
Eva says that she is leaving without a job: “I don't care”, she assures.
And she's already looked at schools.
They bought a ground floor in Puigcerdà, "a super opportunity", and despite being "super urbanites" they believe that there is no comparison for children.
“In Puigcerdà they can go alone, they throw themselves on the ground, they live in the village, they play everywhere.
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on
and
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber