Amid Tourists and Gentrification, Barcelona Faces a Crime Wave

When Eliza left her apartment in Barcelona’s central El Born neighborhood for a trip over the recent holidays, she wasn’t sure what state she’d find her home in when she got back.

“I witness pickpocketings and break-ins several times a day in my neighborhood nowadays,” she told CityLab via email. She works as a translator, having moved from Athens eight years ago to the narrow, picturesque jumble of Barcelona’s old city, and prefers not to use her last name. She has noticed the area getting steadily more insecure. “Increasingly, thieves aren’t even trying to be stealthy. I’ve seen them just climb onto a balcony at 2 a.m. or break a bar’s window with a drainpipe. It’s got so bad that when I went away, I divided my stuff among several friends’ flats, so I had a better chance of coming home to at least some of it.”