Dozens of people move to the sound of music this Saturday at noon. They are in the section of Pere IV located between the streets of Pamplona and Àlaba. There are tables with food, with books, with clothes and other products. A paella is cooked to be devoured by the attendees.
Sounds YMCAfrom Village People, and at least six of those present, at different points of the street party, play at reproducing the acronyms with their hands, like the members of the group when they sang it. Over the loudspeaker, a woman’s voice warns: “The reason for this party is to claim that these streets are ours. and not from the bottle. We will do whatever it takes to defend them! We will make demands! & rdquor ;.
The inflection point
Those who are here are not bothered by the music or the revelry. It bothers them not being able to sleep at night due to the large concentration of people in the area. Bottles, crowds. A phenomenon, they explain, that is not new: decades ago there were already young people on the streets. But they see a significant turning point with the pandemic. What used to happen on weekends now happens from Wednesday to Sunday. On Fridays from four in the afternoon, too.
Concentrations of people who shout and make noise, and which have led to residents of Pere IV, Pamplona and nearby streets can’t fall asleep. That the issue is more serious than before seems clear: the neighbors have organized and held weekly assemblies for three months. They form a group that was first called SOS Pedro IV and is now known as SOS Triangle Gulf.
The Marina bars
“It is the space between Marina, Badajoz, Llull and Sancho de Ávila. I don’t know if exactly the shape is that of the triangle & rdquor ;, he affirms with a smile Jerónimo Bella Lorenzo, 55-year-old social educator, a resident of Pere IV for decades and a member of SOS Triangle Gulf, who explains how the situation is: “Historically, the area is known as the Triangle Gulf or the Marina bars. But now the presence of bars is residual compared to before. They are five or six. There are many more annoyances because the dynamics have changed. After the pandemic there has been the great hatching, from Wednesday to Saturday. Before, leisure was on the weekend and the inconvenience was tolerable because leisure was indoors & rdquor ;.
The group, as can be seen, does not consider that the entertainment venues are responsible for what is happening. “We started organizing after last summer. Suddenly, starting at 11:00 p.m. or midnight, in Pere IV with Pamplona, the cars of the people who are there can no longer pass. We had never seen it before & rdquor ;. With the leisure closed, the street was full of people. “They brought their own speakers.” With leisure reopened, the street has continued to be full of people. When the cold came, the people were still there, and they haven’t gone away: “I wish there were so many people at the demonstrations & rdquor ;, says Bella.
“There comes a time when we get tired of calling the Guàrdia Urbana, we close, we go into the inner rooms and we pill. Many do. A colleague recommends us sleeping pills & rdquor ;, she says. The group has a series of objectives, and among them is to file a complaint against the city council. Their claims are summarized “When we started there were 10 of us, we shared a WhatsApp group that served to let off steam. We sent each other videos. When we started holding assemblies we were three people, then 10”. Now about 60 neighbors make up the group.
drinking in the street
“The general objective is to eradicate the bottle, but we are not against nightlife. A healthy city needs leisure. Fun is necessary. The neighbors are against the breach of the regulations, the use of the street. The price paid for this leisure is the mental health of the neighbors. We ask David Escudé (Councillor of Sant Martí) and Albert Batlle (Deputy Mayor of Security) that the regulations be applied, which says that you can’t drink alcohol on the street. He says you can’t pissing, defecating, vomiting or having sex in the street. It happens constantly & rdquor ;.
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The member of SOS Triángulo Golfo tells that after holding a meeting with Escudé, Batlle and representatives of the police forces and nightlife, the meeting was to be repeated before Easter, but the authorities did not call it. Now, the neighbors collect signatures and intend to file a complaint for non-compliance with article 43 of the Constitution, that proclaims the right to health, against the authorities. That is, against Escudé and Batlle. Bella warns that the neighbors can’t take it anymore. She is afraid that someone will explode and throw a flower pot out the window. Bottles have already been released, tangerines. The most frequent for now is that a neighbor throws water at the screamers.
bachelor parties
While the neighbors finish the paella, a group of British women who have come to Barcelona to bid farewell to the bachelorhood of one of them, as so many groups of tourists do every week, come to the party to browse. A woman explains to them what the matter is about. “Let’s see what they do tonight & rdquor ;, says a man who watches the scene.