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The other side of Formula 1: Barcelona residents protest for race-car exhibition

While 38,000 watched Formula 1 spectacle in city streets, hundreds called for the resignation of mayor Collboni

Photo: Irene Vilà CapafontsPhoto: Irene Vilà Capafonts"We have to tell Jaume Collboni that Barcelona is not an amusement park and that he is not the director of Port Aventura, he is the mayor of Barcelona", said Jordi Elgström, spokesperson for Eixample Respira("Eixample breathes"), one of the bodies gathered under the demonstration's slogan Fora Fórmula Fum("Get Out, Formula Smoke"). In the mobilization, as well, all kinds of slogans were chanted, but there one that was repeated a lot, that of " Collboni resignation", which was accompanied by criticism of the police baton-charges that took place recently on the occasion of the neighbourhood protests against the celebration of a fashion catwalk in Park Güell by the firm Louis Vuitton- linked to the celebration of the America's Cup yachting contest - a day when police beat protesters. In any case, the closure of Carrer Aragó due to the demonstration was thus one more street on top of the closure of a whole section of the Eixample neighbourhood as required for the Formula 1 exhibition to take place, and although the Carrer Aragó closure to traffic had not been initially planned in the exhibition logistics, it also, curiously enough, served to decongest the area, since many pedestrians, oblivious to the demonstration by residents and organizations, took advantage of the ephemeral conversion of Carrer Aragó into a pedestrian zone to be able to walk around the area where Formula 1 cars were continuing to make their noise.

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