How pedestrianization halted a Spanish city's decline

In central Pontevedra, pedestrians now have absolute priority. And in just over two decades, the home to 80,000 inhabitants has been transformed from a city in decay.

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[jjko]

so cool !!!! i hope more city's will became like that in the future

[miguelcarunchod.]

I did my college years there, so let me unedelcurate what the news man is saying. There was and still is a huge factory next to city, a paper making and probably electricity that burned a lot of eucalyptus. During the 2000's the smell for the people who were in the highway was a landmark of the city.

It was stablished on paper the factory was to be shut down around this years unless the company owners of the factory, one of the top 35 by stock market value in Spain, made some changes to make it healthier.

Now, there is no smell and making it pedestrian allows the population to breath better, which is important since most of them are elderly people and college students from the campus who come from all around.

Also, not closing down the factory allowed the city to not lose a huge part of their income and jobs but the eucalyptus plantations around Galicia still cause lot of fires every summer here.