Talk:Barcelona

This paragraph is only a politic opinion:

While the city has been the focus of the revival of the Catalan language, movement of Castilian speakers from other parts of Spain for economic reasons to Barcelona have limited the success of the imposition of Catalan in everyday life.

Then I revert the version Llull 15:00, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for explaining your change. Is the sentence false? - Montréalais 15:01, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

¿Truth? ¿False? Simply is a politic opinion. "Imposition of Catalan in everyday life" is publicity of a type of ideology not appropiated for a neutral enciclopaedia. Llull 15:13, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I see what you mean. What if it were rewritten ("the move to increase use of Catalan" etc.)? - Montréalais 15:16, 15 May 2004 (UTC)

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Peter Wye.

I think that saying "increasing use of Catalan" is a good compromise. I have made the change to make the sentence more neutral sounding to allay Llull's concerns.

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An awful lot of this reads like a travel brochure rather than an encyclopedia article. -- Jmabel 06:59, Jun 5, 2004 (UTC)

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I don't agree with the setence saying that "...opening times of Barcelona's museums vary considerably and are often highly inconvenient". When i was living there i never found them inconvenient... I think it is something that can vary from person to person Parakalo 11:53, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I have changed what sounded like "Barcelona incorporated Aragon" to "later formed the Kingdom of Aragon" which is more consistent with history. Perhaps should be better written to sound neutral. Read history in Aragonese Empire to see what I mean. --62.81.27.241 17:13, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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"Despite the immigration of Castilian speakers from other parts of Spain during the Franco dictatorship for political and economic reasons to Barcelona": I'm not convinced that political reasons applied here. There is a common belief that the Franco regime encouraged immigration to Catalonia and the Basque Country to dilute regional identity, but as I understand it immigration was overwhelmingly for economic reasons, as these were simply the two most industrialised and economically avanced regions of Spain. Can anyone provide evidence that politically-motivated immigration took place? If not I shall change it to something like "Despite the immigration of Castilian speakers from other parts of Spain during the Franco dictatorship,...". -- Blisco 17:48, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

OK, done. Blisco 20:26, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Parks

Barcelona, with its mild weather and dense medieval center, is renowned for its parks and open spaces.

I found it highly bizarre (if not straightforward hilarious) to see this sentence here. We people from Barcelona are always bitching about the lack of green areas (see parks) in our city and here we are with this (I'd say false. But this "term" is higly unencyclopaedic) statement that looks like pure propaganda straight from a tourist leaflet or architectural bullshit. The Hague has parks and open spaces. Not Barcelona. Could it be rewritten in some other way? I suggest:

Despite its dense urban tissue, Barcelona is endowed with some small albeit remarcable parks.

(which is admitedly very architecturish-bullshit generator as well, that's why I ask for collaboration. And the weather issue could be skipped.)80.58.35.236 12:34, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

• That seems like a pretty good revision to me. I'm the one that dumped a lot of park information into this article - basically a reflection of a three-day study tour of the planning of outdoor spaces in (and around) the city. We had plenty to see during the trip and while the proportion of green open space per person may be low for Europe, the proportion of public outdoor space and good weather is quite high compared to many other cities. -- As for balancing the article, I might suggest a short statement mentioning both statistical figures for public/green/open space access, some history of recent efforts to create new parks, and a brief mention of the perceptions of locals about parks in general and then move the more detailed stuff to a new "Parks in Barcelona" article. Dystopos 13:54, 20 May 2005 (UTC)