Neighbors of the Fort Pienc neighborhood report that dog owners are gradually taking over the Estació del Nord park.
The neighborhood association on this side of the Eixample says that this park is frequented by professional pet walkers from many other corners of Barcelona, ​​that so many dogs make it difficult for even the nesting of birds that were very common here, which the City Council is yielding to a new lobby… And the dog owners, however, respond with a halo of resignation that isn’t such a big deal, that nowadays people complain about everything, that in reality in this very corseted city there aren’t that many spaces where animals can run happily and freely, that they also have their rights…
Do you know that Barcelona now has more dogs than children under twelve? The friction between dog owners and the rest of the users of the Estació del Nord park are a small preview of the new coexistence problem that is looming over the city. Once again, the lack of space, and not so much the lack of civility, will fuel the disagreements. Making use of many plastic bags and water bottles with a few drops of disinfectant will not be enough.
After the summer, the City Council will launch a hundred-odd areas called shared use, spaces where at least during certain hours dogs can run happily and freely. The fact is that the first of these zones came into operation a few days ago precisely here, in this park, and the conflict is still alive.
These frictions go back five years and a peak. To appease them, the City Council set up the largest dog recreation area in the Eixample here at the end of the year. In addition, the City Council ordered that one of the future shared use areas would be next to the park. But this did not satisfy the demands of dog owners. After all, in these spaces there is always a great deal of dust, and the calmer animals end up overwhelmed by the more nervous ones, and it is not as good as it seems. And, well, we’ll see how the new shared-use area looks after the summer, when they open it, they added… Meanwhile, the rest of the park users complain about the excrement left on the lawn and lament that the owners of dogs continue to allow their pets to run freely and happily through the area of ​​the pyramids, through the heart of the park.
So, a few weeks ago, the government of Mayor Ada Colau decided to implement a new shared-use area inside this large green area, next to the largest dog recreation area in the Eixample, and put it into operation, as a as an emergency solution and also as a pilot test for the hundred-odd zones with the same characteristics that will come into operation throughout Barcelona after the summer. At this time, the City Council is very satisfied with the results. Most of the dogs run freely and happily through the authorized areas. Other users can dispose of the rest of the park.
“But in this way – they reply to the neighborhood association – dog owners are appropriating the park, taking over the uses of this green area, excluding others. In our opinion, this does not solve the problems of coexistenceâ€.
Once again, in Barcelona, ​​there is a lack of space.
