Dennis Hollingsworth

Tossa's Urban Plan

We found flyers about town announcing the exhibition of the recent changes to the Urban Plan for Tossa.

?Que Bien!

The exhibit has a dozen foam core boards (one image at top) with the usual image/text montage standard to the profession. Data was broken down by category and tons of verbage in Catalan all boils down to this: Tossa is a town whose sole industry is MassTourism.

Since there is evidently ( I admit that I'm still learning) no vision for alternative industries of any type, and the thought of a migration to wealthier tourists is inconcievable at the moment, then fortifying the MassTourism function is the only thing people here can do. So they will provide better parking and spruce up the place a bit.

But think about the trends: tourism is expanding globally, eco-tourism and exotic tourism (I read recently how the Afgans want to make Tora Bora a tourist destination... wait a minute, was that a spoof?)... and changes in the concept of Social Security and retirement will inevitably make their mark on the tourism of tomorrow. Is it me or does the idea of MassTourism seem dated to the seventies or so?

The trouble is that attracting busloads of tourists to sell them Mexican sombreros and burro (the Catalan logo) beach blankets all the while serving up a comida that seems much the same in all restaurants here. Good stuff sure, but why not a variety in character and quality?

I'm sure that this is what the plan dictates, but I could be wrong. A second meeting is soon, and I will attend with interest.

Is it too predictable that I would think this place should embrace the arts as a way to move the tourist cursor in a different direction? I'm serious and I don't think it is a craven suggestion laced with self intrerest. (Porsupuesto un poco, pero pocisimo, eh?) Forget the artworld. Any cultural content offered in this pueblo is game for an investment of imagination and yes, public funds in music, theater, literature, although the kind of fine arts that vies for the dialog would make the picture complete.

Symposiums, exhibitions, publications, an art fair of ideas for example. Take for example how Houston manifested the Glassell School, the post graduate residency program that seeded that city with an art community that is vital to this day. It helps to have the museums nearby, and this region has its' share too.

Tossa as a summer experience already provides cultural content, why not sharpen it a little?

A modest but ambitious public relations effort to let the world know would inevitably attract a different kind of touristm the kind that likes the arts. A surrogate and well meaning promotional sleight of hand.

There's been talk about building a wharf to the South to let the yachts dock, the fell swoop to move the type of tourism here. I'm not too sure about that.

Artists are always the vanguard of urban renewal (gentrification, for you narrow eyed sour pusses out there). Cities should use them as a force for positive change. Artists may get pushed out one day, but so what? Change will do y'all good. In the meantime, artists need cheap rent to have time to have the time to think anew about art. Rent at the moment is pretty good here in general and there is a lot of empty and otherwise not-tasked building volumes in Tossa too... great studio space, guys!

Update: Here's Tossa's urbanism site for you in Catalan

Update II: Mom's comment was accurate: it's the fisher families' obstinance that keeps this town from becoming overdeveloped, a cartoon of itself. As they say here: "We're simple people.". At least they keep the town from becoming like other carnivalesque beach towns here along the Med.

Even so, I am wary of the thick casing of golden amber that preserves this place so. To be modern is to wrestle in a Faustian way and the alternative is at best a fairy tale... at worst, to be atavistic in a not-so-good way.