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THE PULL OF THE NEW: Bilbao's old opera house still stands amid the city's thriving development
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Leaning over the rail of the bridge that crosses the River Nervión, opposite the imposing City Hall of Bilbao, a patient visitor can spot some faint signs of life below. A few gray, unappetizing-looking fish can be seen mouthing the surface of the almost-black water. Bilbao's deputy mayor, Ibon Areso, says they are called muble, "the rats of fish, good at living on waste, very resistant."
The muble of the river flowing through this Basque port city on Spain's northern coast need to be tough. Until recently the water they inhabit was biologically dead. It carried no oxygen, only toxic sludge from decades of waste when Bilbao was an industrial giant and the city had Spain's highest per capita income. The worldwide collapse of steelmaking and shipbuilding, Bilbao's main industries, saw that ranking reversed. "Instead we got high unemployment [more than 25%], the social problems and marginalization that go with it, and environmental degradation," says Areso.
The Nervión is still a sick patient in need of intensive care, but the mubles' tenuous presence in it supports what the burghers of today's Bilbao maintain: a dying rustbelt city can be born again.
It helps to have a Guggenheim, of course. Just around the bend from the City Hall bridge, the Frank Gehry-designed titanium-clad museum of modern art has put Bilbao on the world map the way mere steel never did. Since opening three years ago this October, it has lured 3.5 million people to the city. "Of those visitors, 85% to 90% come from outside the region," says museum director general, Juan Ignacio Vidarte. "That in itself has changed the personality of the city." More than half are foreigners, Britain and France the two main sources.
While Vidarte's main interest is art not urban planning, he does see the Guggenheim as a turning point for the city's resurgence. A study by consultants KPMG Peat Marwick shows the impact museum visitors are having away from it. "In these three years, the economic effect of the museum is going to be about $500 million, some five times its cost," says Vidarte. "That's aside from the additional tax revenues, which alone have enabled the local institutions to recover their investment. The benefit is also psychological, it's having outsiders coming to see something Bilbao has to offer the world. This is a very positive thing for the average citizen."
This success has meant that there is now a queue of cities, from Beijing to Venice, wanting a Guggenheim of their own. "We have a constant stream of cities coming with plans for change based on having a Guggenheim," says Vidarte. He sees this as both a concern and a compliment. "Many of these cities think: This worked, we want a replica. But you can't do that, each situation is unique. What is complimentary is that Bilbao is an example of culture as an investment in a redevelopment process."
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