Beds in the Plazas
Recap in English-- Barcelona has been experiencing a housing crisis for the last 2 decades, it's gotten much worse since the economic crisis (2008ish) because many have returned to investing in mass tourism as a way to boost profit, but the only ones increasing their earnings are the ones who were economically fine to begin with. Part of this mass tourism industry is turning flats over to short-term foreign residents and tourists who will pay 2-4 times as much for a room or apartment. As a result, it has become near impossible for a local to continue living in Barcelona, where they grew up/where they work/where they pay taxes to their city. Many of these flats/apartments on airbnb are illegal and the grassroots mayor, Ada Colau, is trying to regulate this so locals can find housing (and avoid a Manhattan or San Francisco type of situation where only the wealthy get their way). Today they've started a creative campaign to raise awareness about this problem. They put beds in the plazas (public everyday space!) with a multilingual sign that explains the problem.
"El Ayuntamiento de Barcelona puso en marcha ayer en las calles más céntricas de la ciudad una impactante campaña comunicativa en contra de los alojamientos turísticos ilegales. El Consistorio colocó camas en la vía pública y, junto a ellas, carteles en varios idiomas que informaban: “Que esta cama esté disponible en internet no significa que sea legal”."
https://elpais.com/ccaa/2017/07/18/catalunya/1500405327_368916.html?id_externo_rsoc=FB_CC
