Palma's center must be recovered for the citizens

As every year, walking through the center of Palma is a joy on Sant Jordi's Day. Not only to see a crowd looking for a book and giving roses and love for culture, but also because the inhabitants occupy what was once their public space. Plaça Major, Cort and La Rambla, in Palma's case, are reclaimed for a day by the people of Palma – and the islanders in general –, those who live in the city, and whom mass tourism has driven out.

It remains sad that only when there is a demonstration, or a cultural celebration like Sant Jordi, can citizens enjoy feeling at home when walking through what was once their city. Today, among the gentrified businesses, franchises, ice cream parlors that spew water vapor, terraces full of menus in English and German where it is impossible to find a local dish, and the swarm of people that even makes walking difficult, it is not surprising that the citizen has abandoned the center.

There is nothing sadder than feeling that you have lost your city. That it has been conquered in such an abusive way that it is already identical to the rest of tourist-filled capitals, with the same businesses where, in a case like ours of having our own culture, they look at you strangely in the best of cases if you speak in the local language.

And this causes a feeling of pessimism and suffocation that no citizen deserves, and that public authorities must actively combat. A city without citizens, only with people with mobile phones in hand compulsively taking photos, and which relegates locals to the periphery, is a failure. It is up to the authorities to take measures and for locals to inhabit the centers of towns and cities more. Not to give up.