The residents of some streets in the Eixample are fed up with the fact that this area of ??the city has become the great watering hole of Barcelona, ??with all the problems this entails. Reconciling rest and not feeling kicked out of your home is complicated when in streets like Enric Granados, Mallorca, Aribau and, more recently, Consell de Cent, noise and dirt cause serious discomfort to residents, both at the time the terraces of the bars are in full operation as later, even in the wee hours of the morning, when these streets become a route of tourists and natives quite loaded with alcohol.
The new councilor of the district, Jordi Valls, took note of the problem and yesterday, after meeting with representatives of several neighborhood organizations, including the Eixample Left Neighborhood Association and the SOS Enric Platform Granados, promised to “redouble this summer’s commitment to coexistence in public space”.
The municipal government announced yesterday that it has strengthened the device to enforce regulations and guarantee neighborhood rest in areas with intensive use of public space, such as the new green axis of Consell de Cent, or the environment of Enrique Granados This weekend itself, the change should begin to be noticed with the announced start of the reinforcement of the presence of the Urban Guard in the Esquerra de l’Eixample and the incorporation of a new night patrol during the months of July and in August, from the time the terraces close and until three in the morning.
It will not be easy for the officers in charge of respecting coexistence in these streets. Recently, new phenomena have appeared that have worsened the situation. Practically every day you can see, and above all hear, how huge groups of people – sometimes they can exceed a hundred – come back shouting, with drinks in their hands, on organized routes that take them from bar to bar.
As reported by the City Council yesterday, the work of the new patrol will be accompanied by measures to raise awareness against noise, an intensification of inspections to ensure compliance with the regulations of public places and a reinforcement of cleaning. Regarding this last point, every weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, some sections of Enric Granados will be cleaned when the terraces have closed, which in this street have had restricted hours for months (until 11 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Friday, Saturday and the eve of public holidays)
Although it does not rule out resorting to tougher actions, the City Council has started distributing a poster in Catalan, Spanish and English reminding of the ban on drinking and consuming alcohol on public roads, inexhaustible sources of noise and dirt. The distribution began in the most tense areas of Enric Granados, Aribau, the Joan Miró park, the superilla of Sant Antoni and Avinguda Mistral, to which, in recent days, Consell de Cent, Girona and the surrounding areas have been added of the SagradaFamilia.
