Even the city in general has its limits, more likely than we humans have. The authorities issue a full term of office in the removal of these limits, circumventing, or, as far as possible, managing them.

I first met the word gentrification in 2009, when I was studying Regional and Urban Economics in Sarriko. In this process, people of higher socio-economic status (artists, entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, university students) attended to a working-class and degraded neighborhood in the city, taking advantage of low prices. Afterwards, the neighborhood was rehabilitated and residents of the neighborhood were displaced to another place. I learned this phenomenon as beneficial and exemplary, because the socioeconomic situation in these neighborhoods would increase. New shops and innovative restaurants would be opened, artists' murals and galleries would be seen in the streets and jazz music would be heard in the "Molton Garitos". This phenomenon that we were learning was taking place in a specific area of Bilbao, specifically in Bilbao la Vieja, San Francisco and Zabala.

Working-class neighborhoods have their obvious limits. Water can be one of them, physical. Water often divides a rich area into a poor area, as the Bilbao Estuary (and as it continues to do) has done for many years. Motorways isolate peripheral neighbourhoods from the centre, as do railways. The land itself is the delimiter, with working-class neighborhoods in steep areas, while the center is four. All these physical limitations are derived from other limitations and deficiencies: isolation, more precarious public services, higher unemployment rates, lower incomes, drugs, prostitution... The neighborhoods that were once prosperous, when industry was the head of the economy, bear the stigma of degradation and, of course, become a problem for the authorities. The neighborhoods of Bilbao La Vieja, San Francisco and Zabala are the example of this.

Separated waters of the Casco Viejo, isolated from the Ensanche by railways and in a steep area. Oblivion, the serious socio-economic situation and the stigmatization of public administrations. Something had to be done to maintain synchrony with the transformation that was taking place in these 3 neighbourhoods in Bilbao. There was a great opportunity to invest in real estate, for the low price of land, to renovate existing buildings or to build new ones. Low rentals, a perfect excuse to attract new businesses. Business, security. Security, new neighbors. New businesses and new neighbours, price growth. Price increases, displacement of old neighbors. But if it were not enough, the maximum of gentrification would be the arrival of the TAV to Bilbao, with the underground railways and the work that would unify Bilbao the Vieja and the Ensanche. We do not know when we will see it, but we know that we will pay it very well.

Fortunately, for the time being, cultural diversity and neighborhood movements in these neighborhoods remain strong, betting on the coexistence between Bilbao la Vieja, San Francisco and Zabala. However, the gentrification process has begun to open gaps around the Marzana Pier: long but careful beards, 'tactel' fans of the '90s, old but 'stylish' clothing and notable elitism. And that's one of the objectives of this capitalist model: to turn those gaps into gaps, to destroy the class character of neighborhoods and to foster economic elitism. Feed another kind of bubbles, mock what was poor, until the bomb gets big. And what about all the bubbles? Well, in one moment or another it will burst.

And that's what starts to happen in the most important commercial streets of Manhattan, in New York. On the streets, which were precursors to the gentrification phenomenon in the 70s and 80s, the bubble explosion has soiled all avenues, including the famous one 5.Etorbide. Commercial premises are closed one after the other and more than 20% of shops are already closed. Apart from this, since 1970 the population of New York has increased by 3.6 per cent, while in the 15 gentrified neighborhoods the population has decreased by 16 per cent. The rising cost of land has made economic activity and life unsustainable. In addition, an economic asymmetry is taking place; although the floors and commercial premises are being emptied, the price of the soil remains very expensive, multiplying this problem.

If we want an economically healthy city, we must take into account the needs of social classes. Bilbao La Vieja is not the Soho of New York, although for some it is, and we cannot allow elitism to gain ground in neighborhoods over the years. The future of Bilbao can be the present of New York and it is in our hands to introduce more air into the bubble or fill it with more solid bases. Gentrification itself, because of its limitations.

>>> This article Uriola.eus has been posted by Aitor Murgia Esteve on the web. We brought it to Euskal Herria thanks to the CC-By-SA license.