The beautiful shadows cut down by selfies

Under cover of darkness, before dawn, Palma City Council sent a team of workers to Llorenç Villalonga Square in the Calatrava neighborhood last Thursday, and He made them cut down the eighteen beautiful shade trees that were there.The trees had been the subject of a controversy between the City Council and the neighborhood residents, who quite rightly wanted to keep them in place for obvious reasons: they were an integral part of the square's and the neighborhood's character, and provided—as trees always do in urban environments—numerous benefits to the community, starting with the shade they offered. They were, like all the trees in Palma, part of the city's heritage. But they fell victim to the sound of chainsaws, a sound so beloved by the right wing. If it were up to them, it seems, they'd be sawing everywhere.

Contrary to what some might say, this is neither trivial nor anecdotal. It is a blatant demonstration of the city government's insensitivity, led by Mayor Jaime Martínez, towards a citizen demand brimming with reasons and arguments: Palma is indeed a city terribly lacking in green spaces, where even parks often consist of vast expanses of ornamental concrete. The fact that this is also the case in other Mediterranean cities (Barcelona or Valencia, for example) does not justify it being the case in Palma as well. Furthermore, the improper way in which the City Council has treated the citizen movement (first ignoring and discrediting it, and finally punishing it with the felling of trees, without any dialogue or willingness to engage in it) clearly demonstrates the authoritarian drift of the City Council, led by the PP and Vox parties in particular, and of these two right-wing groups. To top it all off, the decision to cut down the trees was based solely on supposed internal technical reports that no one had ever seen, and which—also supposedly—warned of an even greater supposed risk of the trees falling. These phantom reports, however, served as the basis for the ruling by the Administrative Court No. 4 of Palma, which—surprise, surprise—gave the green light to the felling of the trees for safety reasons. Even though it was an emergency, the trees were already cut down and dead first thing the next morning.

It's obvious to everyone that the felling of the bellasombra trees is solely motivated by the desire to favor the private interests of a few specific hotel and restaurant owners who wanted—and now have—the Plaça de Llorenç Villalonga 'cleaned up' to exploit commercially as they see fit. It's also obvious to everyone the sudden rapport between these parasitic businesspeople and these authoritarian politicians when it comes to demonstrating their utter disregard for the common good and the heritage of cities and towns, especially when it comes to desecrating public spaces for private gain. And it's clear to everyone that beauty and harmony (which are not mere abstract concepts, but classic architectural and urban planning principles) are incompatible with cities of selfie, Instagram, and franchise tourism. This type of tourism disfigures cities and turns them into repetitive backdrops—without character, identity, or soul—from country to country, all over the world.