The Image Of Mallorca's Towns

Let me tell you about three towns. Or rather, let me tell you about their points of traffic entrance and visual appearance. They are three towns with which I am very familiar. For those of you who don't have intimate knowledge of Alcudia, Muro and Pollensa, you may nevertheless recognise similarities with towns of which you do have such knowledge.

The main road leading into Muro from Can Picafort is, until you arrive at Muro, a pleasant cross-country drive, characterised by farmland devoted to the agriculture of the area. But as you enter the town, you are confronted by several warehouses and a large petrol station.

Pollensa doesn't have quite the same traffic arrangement. The main road from the motorway skirts past the town, but the immediate view of the town can leave one somewhat impressed, as it is one primarily of apartment blocks.

For both Muro and Pollensa these external images are in stark contrast to what one discovers in their centres. Pollensa is one of Mallorca's finest old towns. Muro also has splendid appeal, courtesy of its imposing church plonked right opposite the old town hall building.

Alcudia, the town, doesn't have quite the same visual impediments in its more immediate entry points. However, if you take the main road from the motorway into the port area, you can look to your left and see Sant Jaume church in the distance, with what seems like neglected scrubland in the foreground. If you take an alternative route into the port area, the Avenida Tucan, you see more such scrubland (really parts of the Albufera that have been allowed to remain and, in some instances, poorly maintained). This same route reveals large garage workshops and an Eroski supermarket.

The mayor of Alcudia, Antoni Mir, told me some months ago that it was his wish to improve these entry-point visual images. The mayors of Muro and Pollensa, Martí Fornes and Miquel Àngel March, may harbour similar ambitions for their towns, albeit that in Muro one of those warehouses has been acquired by the town hall, at not insignificant cost, to be used as a centre for the town's services' operations.

The Council of Mallorca, through its councillor for land, Mercedes Garrido, is coming up with a landscaping plan for the island's towns. Under this, all departments at the Council would need to take account of aesthetic requirements when contemplating projects, such as with road building. Town halls would need to minimise visual impacts of projects that are their responsibilities. The Council isn't saying that there would have to be immediate alterations to the landscape but is saying that, bit by bit, the images of warehouses and what have you would be removed from the entry points.

The plan, on the face of it, has a great deal of merit but it may encounter issues of practicality, to say nothing of will and finance. There have, however, been examples of this will in the past. Pollensa is a case in point. Some while ago, there was meant to have been a project involving the university to shield the image as one drives along the main road. What's happened to the project, I can't say, but in principle it was a sound idea. Greening the exterior of the town could only be of benefit and not just for improving the view.

However, doing something similar elsewhere might not be feasible. In Muro, for example, there wouldn't be the room to plant trees in order to shield the warehouses. For the Council of Mallorca, the option would be to relocate these. But where? A solution would be an industrial estate. Muro doesn't have one.

The industrial estate option, though, has its own drawbacks. An estate can itself provide a less than pleasing aspect. In Pollensa, a different entry point takes you past the town's industrial estate, now dominated by large retail outlets. Moreover, unless an estate is firmly controlled, which is generally not the case, it is subject to speculation, high rents and the influx of showrooms and entertainment centres. The smaller business is thus penalised.

The point is that warehouses and other manifestations of commercial and industrial activity have to go somewhere. Might it become, therefore, a case of removing one problem but creating another in an alternative location, even assuming that an alternative could be found? The Council is pretty strong in not wanting there to be new commercial developments. Planning permissions would be difficult to obtain.

Such issues may not be insurmountable, however. The Council's plan draws on landscaping recommendations from the European Union that are being adopted elsewhere. It is a plan that is laudable as there are various examples of unappealing images in addition to the ones cited above. I give you, for instance, Inca as a case in point. Smartening up town's exteriors can only be a good thing.

* Photo of Avenida Tucan in Alcudia, leading to the port.

How Urban Green Is Mallorca?

If you take a look at a map of Palma, what do you see? Or rather, what do you see comparatively little of?

The other day I wrote a piece about the Feixina park monument in which I referred also to the Parc de la Mar that was created in the mid-1970s. Neither of these is a large park. There is other parkland and green space in the city, but it is this - the relative absence of green space - which is noticeable.

Not all cities are the same and nor should they be, but fine cities, despite their densities of population and construction, tend to have great parklands. A friend of mine, in London for the first time in years, commented recently on Facebook about the remarkable parks of that city: Regent's Park, Hyde Park. There are other vast green areas in London of course. There again, London is enormous by comparison with Palma.

But one can think of other European cities. Two of personal fond memory are Amsterdam and Munich. In years gone by, I spent many an hour in Amsterdam's Vondelpark and in Munich's astonishing Englischer Garten, so damn big that it even has a cricket ground on one extremity. Both cities are bigger than Palma. In population terms, Amsterdam is closer - approximately twice the size. Throw in its canals, and I'm guessing that Amsterdam could claim to be one of Europe's greenest cities.

This diversity of urban content in different cities is the consequence of divergent urban plans, legacies, donations and foresight. Back in the day there wouldn't have been attention paid to the climatic benefits of green land, but there was an appreciation of the aesthetic of a park, of its contribution to general well-being, to landscaping principles. In Palma, there seems to have never been such consideration. Greenery has been contrived, such as with the Parc de la Mar, rather than having been the result of distant conservation and landscape ideals.

Palma is a fine city. The more I go there, the more I appreciate its worth. Architecturally, it is splendid. Its attractiveness is varied. I was even able to admire the Palacio the other day. Highly contemporary, but nothing wrong with that, and arguably in the wrong place, it nonetheless has a pleasingly intriguing angular presence. But as the town hall embarks upon wishing the city to become the Mediterranean's tourism capital, it is the lack of green land which diminishes such a desire: the lack, in particular, of a great park.

But in terms of urban layout in Mallorca, Palma is not unusual. Or maybe it is unusual in that it does actually have some parkland. Of the larger towns on the island, only Calvia has detectable green areas, partly the result of the proximity of the Tramuntana mountains but not totally. Inca, Llucmajor, Manacor, Marratxi: green land is minimal.

It is of course the case that green land is close by. From Inca, for instance, one can soon be in open countryside and on the way to the mountains, but this cannot overlook the fact that within these larger towns the residents and visitors are deprived of a softening of the urban environment that comes with parkland. Urban Mallorca is, as a result, somewhat brutalist.

Go to other towns, smaller ones, and there is a similar theme. For some, there is the compensation of blue rather than green, the presence of the sea and the beach. This is the case in Alcudia, for instance. While the town has its natural areas away from the centre, such as La Victoria, within the town and resort, green areas are all but absent. But not completely. On a glorious Sunday afternoon this weekend, parts of the Bellevue hotel complex were quite busy. Not because of tourists, as they have all gone, but because of local people and local families. Bellevue, despite its rotten reputation, has green elements. They form a mini-park. With access totally unrestricted, people can come and use this greenery as though it were a public park, when it is in fact private.

Historical urban development explains a great deal as to why there is an absence of green space. Again, if you look at maps and at the shapes of towns, you can see how this would have occurred. Towns grew on a principle of the huddling of the local populace, not least for defensive purposes. Living space was at a premium, and so green space was all but eliminated. The resorts, though, were different. Some of them were originally conceived as garden cities, but the philosophy of urban green land contained in British and German concepts for new towns from the late nineteenth century was lost in the eventual scramble for touristic construction.

Tourism determined how the resorts are, but not Palma and the towns. Only belatedly has green space became a consideration.

So Many People? UK residents in Mallorca

The annual league table of the populations of Mallorca's towns has been published. You can now amaze your friends with your knowledge of all sorts of population statistics. There are 876,147 people living in Mallorca. The total foreign population amounts to 185,824, and the total number of UK residents is 16,163, down slightly on the figure for 2011.

These population stats are useful if only because they represent the official version of what is otherwise unofficial - the guesswork that is made in arriving at a figure of UK residents. As I have mentioned previously, this figure is inflated. Hence, one is told that the Balearics have 50,000 UK residents, of which some forty odd thousand have to be in Mallorca. Why is there such a wide discrepancy between this guess, which is plainly wrong, and the figure that is arrived at from totting up the number of residents who are registered with their respective town halls?

One reason, or at least I suspect this to be the case, is that a higher figure can be used to justify certain things, whatever these things might be. The British Foreign Office, through the embassy in Madrid, adheres to the 50,000 Balearics figure, but where does it get its figure from? Local guesswork would be my guess. The Foreign Office hasn't the faintest idea how many Brits live in Mallorca. Or anywhere come to that. For its purposes, and apropos all the kerfuffle over the British Consul to the Balearics not being replaced, it would surely make sense for the FO to take notice of the locally produced statistics. 16,000 or so is far lower than the guesswork figure. As it is this low, and therefore considerably lower than in other parts of Spain, the FO could be said to have a case for not continuing with a regular Consul.

A further reason for the discrepancy is the widely held assumption that there are vast numbers of Brits knocking around who don't register. There are some. But vast numbers? I simply don't buy the argument. Registration at a town hall is vital for all sorts of reasons. Not only does failure make one a non-person it also denies one access to health cover and residency status. I can think of reasons of course why someone might not wish to register, but vast numbers? Nah.

This assumption, this perception that there are in fact more Brits and foreigners than the official figures indicate is not one that everyone shares. In the past, when I have mentioned in conversation the official number of Brits in Alcúdia (now 1,072), a reaction (a British one) is to ask where they all are. It is similar in Pollensa. Its official number of Brits is now 811. Oh, there must be more, say some, while others would find 811 rather high. The fact is that as percentages of the two towns' populations, these official figures are very similar and they are both higher than the percentage for the whole island (1.8% British population overall versus 5% or more in Alcúdia and Pollensa). I have no reason to question the figures. There may be more Brits, those few who don't register, but equally these figures comprise those who don't live in Mallorca all year round. Having a house and so registering with the town hall places someone on the "padron", regardless of the length of time spent on the island.

The statistics reveal what has been the case for a number of years, that Calvià has more Brits than anywhere else, twice as many as Palma, and that Alcúdia and Pollensa occupy positions three and four in the league table. One interesting aspect of these figures is that the British and foreign populations have helped to swell the size of towns to the point where they acquire a new status or might acquire a new status. Calvià has 51,114 people in total, and the 50,000 number is important. Once reached, it means a town hall takes on greater responsibilities. It also means it can have more councillors. If a downward trend in British residency were to continue and to be more pronounced, Calvià would lose this status, and while Calvià's population has shrunk since last year's figures were produced, the shrinkage in the past two years is quite startling - around 2,500 people, of which Brits make up roughly a quarter.

Likewise, Alcúdia is only 414 people away from reaching the 20,000 mark, at which point, it would assume more responsibilities and be allowed to have more councillors. Alcúdia might in fact, assuming it wants to keep its councillors, have a drive to try and get the figure up to 20,000, as the national government seems likely to cut the number of councillors and the responsibilities of towns with fewer than 20,000 people.

Population of Mallorca's towns with UK residents - in order of total populations (click to enlarge):

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Comfortably Numb: Not knowing Mallorca

What do any of us know about Mallorca? There are visitors who come to the island for just a few days who know more. They know more because they come with their curiosity aroused. They are more often than not German and not British, as the British are an appallingly incurious people.

The any of us that I refer to are those of us who live in Mallorca, those of us who take pride in the paradise nature of the island, those of us who bask in the reflection of this paradise, those of us who might even boast of it or use it as a justification for presence on the island, despite the dreadful hardships that have befallen Mallorca, despite the inconveniences, the discriminations, the feigned "friendships" with local people that too many expatriates are prone to believe exist.

Outside of the small communities - and they are small, unless they are in Palma or perhaps the conurbation that surrounds Palma - there is the great unknown. It is an unknown of negligent immobility and of the smugly familiar which insists that, within these small communities, there are paradise vistas, paradise restaurants and paradise beaches, but which is only aware of what resides elsewhere because of received wisdom. It is an unknown of the comfortably numb, comfortably coffined into the padded satin lining of death by the cuts of thousands of experiences, views, landscapes, seascapes that exist outside of this numb familiarity - all missed, mortality-encroaching realities. It is an unknown that is boxed in, that is unwilling to ever escape, to explore, to become aware through own eyes of what is otherwise made visual through the internet or the media. It is an unknown that knows but does not feel. It is an unknown of many in Mallorca who have never known Mallorca and who still don't know Mallorca.

There again, why should you ever know Mallorca? It is the fate of residence that inaction takes over, that repetition dominates, that the familiar and the easy dominate. Not just Mallorca. It is the same anywhere. Because it's there, it ceases to be important. It is just there, and there is reassurance in it being there, whatever it is, be it mountain, town or coastline.

Mallorca is not big. It is small but it is nevertheless vast in its possibilities. Its smallness is such that it should be known, but it isn't. Real knowledge is confined to the few. The rest who profess knowledge have none, because all they know is their own bailiwick, their own tiny domain of paradise. Banyalbufar, Biniali, Búger, Caimari ... how many more should I quote, and how many more are unknown?

Get up, get out, just go. Anywhere. Take a look. There are amazing places that surround you. They are known to be there, but they are unknown. Don't let them be.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.