The council approves a new law that expels residents and multiplies tourist apartment blocks.
Across Spain, we're facing an undeniable affordable housing crisis, where rent hikes consistently outstrip salary increases. More households than ever are struggling with housing costs, spending over 30% of our income on rent. In the whole of Madrid Centro, this is the case, yet national rent regulation laws aimed at high-tension areas are not enforced here as our regional right-wing government has opted out.
An occupied bank on a main street of Madrid’s Lavapiés neighborhood was evicted after nearly a decade of operation. Following the 15M movement of 2011, sparked in large part by the collapse of banks in Spain, the many vacated premises of failed banks became prime targets for occupations. The okupa La Canica launched with a utopian anti-capitalist mission – to replace the monetary system itself with a local community-based currency.
Margie came late to writing and, age 81, she’s at the peak of her career. “I don’t have many more years left, so I really want to enjoy being a successful writer for as long as I can.” However, Margie is facing a major setback to her ambitions as her flat has been purchased by a Galician vulture fund, who have asked her to leave by the end of the month.
Foreword: The building in which the oldest shoe shop in Lavapiés, Calzados Vinigon, was purchased by a vulture fund and, being unable to pay a higher rent, María Jesús has been forced to close permanently. What this shoe shop meant to the barrio echoes a story that has been told too many times in Madrid, but I'm telling it again because it is one of the many acts of resistance we have against the normalisation of the death of small businesses.
In their apartment on Calle Navas de Tolosa, officers found a letter ordering the first attempt at their eviction for non-payment of rent. The sisters were living in a flat owned by a private landlord, who filed a lawsuit in May 2023 for almost two years of non-payment for which he was owed €9,000, according to El País. The delayed payment coincided with the passing of their mother in February 2021 after she contracted Covid.
I've seen very little on the news about progress in the flood-hit areas of Valencia, so I was curious to head back there to report on this myself. The clean-up operations by volunteers and public services have been incredible. At first glance, life appears to have resumed to relative normality but Paiporta so quiet.
On Friday, I visited Paiporta, one of the worst-affected towns in Valencia . From La Rambleta, I walked around 45 minutes to arrive to the focus point of the flood damage. En route, I pass a school where kids are handing out gloves, hand sanitiser and masks and are wishing volunteers all the best.
As rescue and recovery operations in Valencia’s flood-hit towns and barrios are underway, Madrid residents are donating food, hygiene products and clothes to municipal collection points run by mostly volunteers.
A DANA (a mass of high-altitude cold air mixes with warm humid air from the Mediterranean) hit Spain yesterday, affecting Madrid and Toledo the worst. Emergency services responded to around 1,500 incidents of people trapped in their cars and homes, which left two people dead and two more missing.
Urban Heat Snapshot (UHS), a research project by Arup university, studied and compared the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) of six major cities: Cairo, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mumbai and New York. Results revealed that out of all six cities, Madrid’s UHIE was the most extreme.
On Monday, less than 24 hours after the election in which we saw the right lose nationally, the same right-wing-run city council began preparations for works on Calle Áncora to expand Madrid’s metro network. These works come at the sacrifice of over 1000 mature trees, which residents are strongly resisting.
An abandoned winery the size of a football stadium stands on the coast of Valencia in the northern area of Alboraia. Built in 1969 during the region’s industrial heyday, this redbrick complex once held up to 32 million litres of wine. It was among the first Spanish wineries to export abroad and, at its peak, a quarter of all wine leaving Spain passed through here.
Just around the corner from Sol, Antigua Pastelería El Pozo, on Calle Pozo, has been serving traditional pastries since 1830. The very frills bakery has kept its original frilly decor this whole time and the pastry chefs continue to use artisanal techniques.
Going through the archives of Valencia's 1957 DANA, I realised I'd taken hauntingly similar photos just last week in Paiporta, so I decided to make direct comparisons by placing the images next to each other.
What this compilation demonstrates is that the same mistakes have been made twice. Predatory urban planning ignoring the limits of our planet, combined with institutional incompetence has led to the destruction of thousands of lives, again.
Bar El Diamante was one of the biggest, best and most frequented no-frills bars in El Rastro until the building on Calle Maldonadas 11 was purchased and evicted around 2016/17.
The layout of stations directly impacts people's mobility. Some cities have taken intermodality (the desire to make using more than one mode of transport during a single journey as easy as possible) as a serious issue, while others have not given importance. Albert explains that there are several key aspects to ensure quality to the transfers: "distance, the lack of architectural barriers, timetable coordination and a good wayfinding system, among others."
The Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid turned 278 this year, and has become a living museum with over 5,500 living species. Since its founding, it's also been a centre for scientific research with a vast library of over a million flora samples which are constantly being exchanged with other research centres across the globe.