Demolition works were extended until 1958 and represented the slow agony of the neighborhood and the diaspora of more than a thousand seven hundred residents. It was a brutal urban reform plan that didn't count with the neighbors and businesses, nor with the traditional social cohesion of the neighborhood, or even less, with the feasts and traditions. Mismanagement that dramatically wiped out an entire neighborhood. The slow demolition of buildings and inevitable displacement of most of the neighborhood, during the fifties, was a constant concern of the residents and traders, most of whom had had their homes and shops there for generations. The Cathedral Quarter was like a self-sufficient village and, as Puig i Alfonso said, "when someone had to marry they sought the girlfriend without leaving the square." The death of the neighborhood was the feeling that presided everything.
The Feast Committee, aware of the terrible circumstances through which not only the physical continuity of the neighborhood but also the neighborhood and family relationships were passing through, exerted the role of Residents and Traders Association. In 1950, the Feast Committee very significantly increased its number of members, mostly young people who were not resigned to see how the neighborhood, their traditions and the contact between neighbors disappeared. Sant Roc, and the Feast Committee, reacted energetically.
The Sant Roc Feast Committee acted as an effective tool to relate neighbors, old neighbors and new neighbors. All kinds of activities were scheduled both for the holidays and beyond: the Neighborhood Dinner, the Quadre Escènic de la Plaça Nova, the Sports Club of Plaça Nova (with chess and football teams), the organization of cultural excursions or the great celebration, in 1955, of the 600 years of the Plaça Nova, with the publication of two books, the tale of the square and the renovation of the giants. From this neighbourhood effort was born a new demonym, a reflection of this resilient spirit: plaçanovins and plaçanovines. This titanic struggle for the survival of the district by the Feast Committee was echoed by many intellectuals and by the press of the time.
