Vision Haifa - Barcelona: report from Barcelona and comparison with our situation in Haifa

I read in Haifa that Haifa is going to be "Barcelona of the MAZ" !!!
I was so excited that I immediately decided to pack my soft toothbrush and little camera and take the first flight to Barcelona to find out what it meant. That way... so that I can really prepare better for this huge moment, which will come very soon... let's try Compare Haifa and Barcelona And take a look for a moment to see how it looks from there, when Haifai wanders the streets of Barcelona with a small camera and a notepad and takes notes...

heart of the city:

Barcelona has a huge city heart And it is difficult to point to a clear point which is the center of the city (compared to the center of Carmel for example). Barcelona has a number of wide streets that meet in huge squares that create many meeting points between local residents and the millions of tourists who visit the city every year.
Just to clear the ear, the heart of the city there is an area roughly equal in size to the entire neighborhood of Neve Shanan (I didn't measure exactly but I walked..).

Haifa - Barcelona - many streets in the city center open into spacious squaresThe Rambla - the main tourist artery in the heart of the city
One of the widest and busiest streets in Barcelona is the Rambla. This is a street that extends from the heart of the city to the magnificent and renovated waterfront of Barcelona. It is difficult to find a matching street in Haifa which may be considered the heart of the city. The parallel area may be the center of Carmel, but its size is zero compared to the vast heart of the city of Barcelona that stretches for many kilometers

Haifa - Barcelona - Rambla Street in Barcelona at night - packed with touristsIn Barcelona the streets are built for people. The cars don't prevent people from being in the center of things here. A typical main street in the heart of Barcelona contains a huge pedestrian walkway, 2 bike lanes, a public transport lane and also 2-3 car lanes. Pay attention to the proportion between the area allocated to the road for private cars and the area allocated to bicycles and pedestrians. proportion…

Haifa - Barcelona - in Barcelona the street is adapted to people - it is shaded, has bike paths and no parked carsPlease note that there are no cars parked in the streets of the heart of the city. All cars are in underground parking lots. There is no surface parking at all in the heart of the city. The roads are one-way. The underground parking lots are dug under (almost) every building in the city. Some of the parking lots are public (for a fee) and some are private. For me as an Israeli and Haifai it is amazing to see a street without parked cars. There is a clear statement here that The street belongs to pedestrians And its appearance is not "dirty" with thousands of parked cars. This creates a spectacular and clean appearance of streets in all their glory. For those who come from Israel, this sight is really strange and it is obvious that there is a lot of thought behind it. There are several main streets that are pedestrianized, with no cars at all. Only cyclists and skateboarders are there. In short, you see that this is a city that is designed to make the time of the person walking the street pleasant, which reduces the use of private vehicles and increases pleasant friction between people in the heart of the city.
In Haifa There are very few underground parking lots and if you think for a moment what Moriah Road looks like then you will remember that actually You don't see a street, but one long surface parking lot that stretches from the university to Stella Maris.

Haifa Barcelona - many underground parking lots are scattered along all the streets of the heart of the cityIn Barcelona the streets are shaded by trees Well-kept and it seems that someone really cares that the trees here smile at people and provide them with a pleasant and pleasant shade. In Haifa Most of the streets are not shaded. Many tourists who come to Haifa in the summer complain that the scorching sun prevents the ability to walk on the street during the day. Think for a moment what Moriah Avenue or Herzl Street or Ben Gurion Boulevard would look like if they were shaded...

Haifa Barcelona - the streets in the center of the city of Barcelona are shaded throughout and create a pleasant atmosphere. At night, the streets of Barcelona are lit up. A lot of people walk around here on the street and really rub shoulders with each other. There is a real and vibrant human community here whose meeting place is the street and the square.At midnight, municipal workers clean the squares with water hoses And hinting to people that it's time to go to sleep, because the street needs to be cleaned for tomorrow. Not everyone is convinced and the street continues to live next to the water hoses of the Barcelona municipality.

Barcelona municipality workers wash the squares at midnight and prepare them for the next day

Overhead electrified train

In Catalonia, the trains operate with overhead electrification. The freight trains reach the commercial port, which is south of the city, and stop there. The freight trains do not enter the city area at all.

The overhead electrified freight trains reach the end of the tracks at the southern entrance to the city and stop. On the left you can see the first square of the sea front. The overhead electrified passenger trains enter underground tunnels and do not create any barrier between the city and the sea. On the tracks outside the city you can see massive, ugly overhead electrification. In Haifa The overhead electrification is planned to cut between the city and the sea soon. This is a difficult problem for which a solution has not yet been found

Overhead electrification in Barcelona - outside the city only

The commercial port:

The commercial port is near the urban area to the south. The plan of the municipality of Barcelona is move the commercial port of Barcelona further south and occupy its territories in favor of a hotel area and thus continue the trend of connecting the city to the sea. In Haifa, the port continues to hold the center of the potential sea front - in front of Ben Gurion Boulevard and does not move a millimeter to the east. In the picture you can see the launch point between the commercial port on the right and the sea front on the left.

Barcelona's commercial port to the south and the waterfront to the north

The naval front

The main street associated with the heart of the city of Barcelona is the "Rambla" street. This street spills into Barcelona's spectacular waterfront. The waterfront consists of many docks built of wooden decks, shopping malls, restaurants and more. Lots of people hanging around there. Proximity to the water makes something special, even though it is actually an area violated by a harbor.

Barcelona's waterfront - a view from the end of the pier towards the heart of the city and the Ramblas are not really clean but not really polluted either. Thousands of big fish hang around there and fatten up an offering when the crowds of tourists throw breadcrumbs at them. The seagulls also attack the food and there is a real celebration to the sound of the seagulls' screams.
It's nice to see huge merchant ships coming in and out of the harbor, with cruise ships, private yachts and even kayakers sailing alongside them. Everything works out in harmony, when tourists and photographers are standing next to them.

Crowds of tourists feed the mullet fish and the seagulls. The proximity of the huge malls to the wooden piers adds to the tourist traffic. A real celebration.

Seaside:

In the fishermen's neighborhood, Barcelonta, a natural beach. This is the only strip within the city that is not a violated area. The beach strip remained wide up to 70 meters of sand. About a kilometer wide. We did not measure. At the back of the sand strip is a wide promenade with surfing and sports clubs, gardens, restaurants and hotels. Thus, a very wide strip is actually left connected to the heart of the city by several boulevards and constitutes an open public space. We took advantage of the clean sand for an afternoon nap.

Barcelona - a wide stretch of beach in the heart of the city where the promenade is far from the sea and leaves an extensive roof

transportation:

The public connection of Barcelona is effective and significant. A high-quality subway is spread over the entire city, and parallel to it, bus traffic is active with a combined ticket.

Efficient public transportation in Barcelona on special routes in the heart of the city. In addition, A huge fleet of red bicycles operated by the municipality of Barcelona. The bicycles are available only to the residents of the city by a subscription activated from the mobile devices. The city is networked with bicycle paths and it seems that cyclists have priority over those who drive cars. Nice to see people in 3 piece suits riding bikes instead of polluting the air in a motor vehicle. I love bicycles and it's so much fun to see how tens of thousands take advantage of this option...
There are no bike lanes in Haifa in the center of the city, so this healthy means of transportation is not relevant for Haifa residents.

In Barcelona tens of thousands ride red bicycles for rent using the iPhone and the whole city is networked with paths

Universities:

Barcelona has several universities. It is evident that some of them are located in the heart of the city at strategic points. The physical connection between the university and the heart of the city of Barcelona is significant. In the morning and in the evening there was a tremendous friction of the thousands of students in the heart of the city. The friction between the university and the heart of the city infuses a young and colorful population that washes the sidewalks. Someone here understood that a university is a source of young and positive human energy. In Haifa there is a terrible disconnect between the 2 universities and the heart of the city And so most of the students do not make a real connection with the Haifa community and most of them leave at the end of their studies.

A university in the heart of the city of Barcelona - tremendous friction between students and residents

Theaters

We walked down the street and saw something really amazing: a movie theater. He was not abandoned in a remote industrial area, but right in the center of the main street. The cinema was not alone, as we continued to walk the streets we saw more and more cinemas that literally mingled in the center of the most central streets. In Haifa you have to go to Chek Post to see a movie, but I learned that the Cinematheque will soon start running a serious movie program. there's hope !

A cinema in the heart of Barcelona

Heavy industry and polluting industry:

In Barcelona there is a heavy industrial area that employs many of the city's residents. This area includes heavy metal industries, car factories that make up Audi and Seat, and more. The polluting area was removed from the city by half an hour's drive (about 30 km). In Barcelona itself, air pollution originating from industry is not noticeable, but there is significant air pollution originating from transportation.

A heavy and polluting industry located 30 kilometers from the city of Barcelona

Preservation of buildings in Barcelona:

I saw the pinnacle of conservation in the old bullfighting stadium of Barcelona, ​​which was converted into a shopping mall. They emptied the stadium of its contents, leaving all of its spectacular outer shell and in a crazy project put the entire perimeter wall floating on top of a state-of-the-art construction. You can see in the photo below the concrete beams that hold the ancient shell.

Shimor in Barcelona - the old Bull Stadium - the pinnacle of the Shimor Mall itself floats in the air to a height of 8 stories on huge metal beams. All this to enable the preservation of the ancient stadium. It is hard to believe how far you can go when you attach importance to the preservation of buildings. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. See for yourself.

The mall in the Bulls Stadium - massive beams below and a mall that floats in the air

The water fountain show

Once a week in the evening there is a tremendous show of water fountains and lighting. The show attracts about 50 to 100 thousand people every week. It was very difficult for me to photograph the mass of people spread out there for about 500 meters, so you'll have to believe me on this part. Here is one point picture.

Tens of thousands of spectators at the water fountains show There is a lot more to tell about Barcelona and there are still a lot of gaps to close. Difficult, but possible!
If you made it this far, then it seems to me that you played it big and patiently, So be nice and share your friends, because I really invested here