Lisbon, the new capital of gentrification & evictions.
November 12th was the start of the UrbanA project in Lisbon, a city going through such rapid and profound change that it was recently deemed “The new capital of gentrification and evictions” (ara.cat). After much time reaching out to local groups and projects active in the city, a group of about 30 participated in a full day of activity in the cities most multicultural community, Mouraria. The event started with a walking tour of the labyrinthine neighbourhood under the old castle, where, like many European cities, touristification, gentrification and Airbnb are driving up rents so quickly that locals can no longer afford to pay and are moving out of their bairros. Minimum wage raised 6% to 635 euros in 2019, but it is still the lowest in western Europe (Reuters). Activists from Housing and Right to the City groups Stop Despejos (Stop evictions), Jardim Martim Moniz and Habita led a mostly local group through the streets to the heart of this transformation, the now mostly emptied, Rua Dos Lagares, where remaining families recently had their evictions stalled due to mobilisations in the streets. Then, in the Mouraria Creative Hub participants explored how the approaches to urban justice and sustainability identified in UrbanA translate to the Lisbon context, using Fishbowl, World Café and other participatory methods. Their findings are being fed into the wider UrbanA project through its collaborative processes and tools, including the wiki and Community of Practice.
(This short article appeared in the first “URBANA City Zine”, from UrbanA)
