Plutonomy and the Growth of Mega Cities: Madrid

In a series of reports in 2005-06 Citigroup analysts discussed the idea of Plutonomy: a world which is no longer divided by national or geographic lines, but rather by economics.  Thomas Piketty picked up on the same theme in his book Capital in the 21st Century and various follow up studies a decade later continue to confirm the global trend at full speed.  There are various permutations, implications and unintended consequences of this trend (including the growth of Luxury brands, Athleisure and the current US President), but one implication that I have noticed living in New York City and traveling extensively over the past decade has been the convergence and loss of identity of large cities.  These days, language aside, it becomes very tough to quickly distinguish whether you woke up on Madison Avenue, in Mayfair, London, Brera, Milan or Salamanca, Madrid…The storefronts are eerily similar, the cars the same, even plastic surgery trends have converged…Similar parallels can be drawn in other neighborhoods, but it is these ultra nice ones that have lost their historic soul and spirit and converged:  Plutonomy.

I have never been to Madrid, or anywhere in Spain and whenever we would plan a trip we’d either go somewhere new, or Italy.  When we were planning the Big Trip we booked 10 days in Deia, Mallorca around V’s birthday. We were supposed to go there last year, but then she broke her ankle and our plans fell through and we wanted to come back. As we were planning our route from Sardinia to Mallorca we had a choice of connection routes and so instead of opting for a connection flight we opted for a 3 day “layover” in Madrid. Madrid was never on our list of potential endpoints post #legerworldtour and #familygapyear.  We have friends who LOVE Madrid, go back every year and rave about it, but neither I nor V ever felt any pull to visit Madrid, let alone move there.  We have no emotional attachment to Spain and we don’t eat jamon.  Based on conversations with friends and preconceived notions I was expecting a large historic city with shoe stores on every corner, amazing, cheap and abundant food options (even after eliminating the national dish), super friendly people, romantic music in the streets, unique architecture and art.  Spain was one of the hardest hit countries (on paper at least) of the last economic crisis and I was very curious to see the real impact on the city and given that we were visiting in July, I was also expecting extremely hot temperatures and a lot of tourists in white sneakers…

In reality Madrid was in many ways very different than what I expected.

Our Airbnb apartment was located at the edge of Masalana and Centro, which is almost the equivalent of living right at the edge of Hell’s Kitchen and Time Square — if you turn left you hit Centro with all its touristy noise, crowdedness and chain restaurants (I am surprised by how many US and Canadian fast food franchises exist here) — we made the mistake of going in that direction our first morning.   If you turn right you can make your way through the cuter streets of Masalana in the direction of Retiro Park.  Along the way we spotted yoga studios and stopped by cute coffee shops for Golden Milk Lattes and Avocado toast.  That track became our routine the last couple of days of our short stay here.   We spent a lot of time in the park, grounding on grass and walked through the pretty streets of Salamanca and visited Paz Market (the closest you can get to a farmers’ market in this town).  It was nice.  Even the weather was much better than I expected:  cool mornings and very bearable afternoons.  Madrid grew on me through the 3 days we spent here, but it also was not much like I expected.  The cost of staying or living here is on par with other large cities — higher than Rome, or MIlan, slightly lower than London, but Plutonomy is a great equalizer of pricing via ApplePay.  Some parts of the city are nice, but there is definitely a great divide between different classes.  We complain about it in NYC, but it is definitely visible here.  The homeless here are not foreign refugees and yet the feel is very similar to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo where we have learned to lend a blind eye and look away.  I say we because I am very much guilty of this same attitude…

And so I leave Madrid with mixed feelings:  I would not choose to move here and am not drawn too much to visit it again.  But at the same time I have no ill will towards the city — I can see how one can have a very comfortable expat life here as long as your expectations, and your budget, is in line with living in NYC or London.

#legerworldtour Madrid recap in pictures:  Churros in the House of Jamon, grounding in the park, shopping in farmers’ markets resulting in wonderful home cooked meals, playgrounds, golden milks and avocado toast, mischievous S and J and M still walking and talking, holding hands…

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