The tenant of a house in Torrent de l’Olla claims to gather evidence of what he considers to be an infraction of the premises
The owner of the establishment replies that he complies with the law and that he cannot be held responsible for what happens outside
Conflict between entertainment venues and neighbors is common, and more so in areas where the night is especially crowded, as is the case in some parts of Gràcia, but it is not so common for a neighbor to fix a camera for months on the outside of a bar to register the focus of the noise that does not let you fall asleep.
That’s what a tenant has done a building in Torrent de l’Olla, just above Travessera de Gràciain a building in front of a bar on the corner of both streets, mountain side and Llobregat. The bar is called El Otro and is by Simone Pesaresi, that opened it in 2005. Since then, he assures, there had been no significant problems with the surroundings of the establishment: “Not one. I have a neighbor with a little girl upstairs and she has our phones. I have never had a problem in 17 years.
Now he does. A neighbor of the building opposite, in Torrent de l’Olla, placed a few months ago a camera that focuses steadily on the outside of the bar, where customers concentrate at times. Something inevitable, emphasizes Pesaresi. Something annoying, denounces the neighbor, a 62-year-old man who has been in the house for 40 years and who says he suffers from sleep disorders. He prefers to keep his identity to himself. He has posted images of people on the street in front of his house on the social network Twitter, as Betevé advanced.
Fine for consumption on the street
Pesaresi is extremely upset with the complainant, with whom he has never had a relationship: “I comply with the law, what happens outside is none of my business. If I put a round out, yes, but I don’t. I have removed the plastic cups. I was fined for not preventing consumption on the street. And a patrol car goes by and says nothing to them. They have fined me 300 euros for not going outside to say that they do not make noise & rdquor ;.
“Eight officers from the Guardia Urbana came yesterday & rdquor ;, adds, referring to the night from Thursday to Friday. El Otro closes at 2.30 on weekdays and 3.00 on weekends. Past that limit, you have about 20 minutes for everyone to leave. “The waiters go to waste, sometimes a customer comes out of the bar and you don’t know about it. I can’t afford to put a doorman, and besides, he has no legal power to tell people to get off the street. ‘You are not a police officer’, they tell you. Also, if I put it on, either they break his face or he breaks someone’s face & rdquor ;, he states.
Nor does the neighbor feel any notable affection for Pesaresi: “I have not seen so far that he showed any kind of sensitivity. The noise is generated by the clientele, therefore the responsibility lies with the bar. You have to hire a person to keep people inside the bar. I understand that he is a businessman who wants to make a profit, but I have the right to rest. This affects health. I have sleep disorders that make it difficult for me to catch it. It is not about conversations, it is shouting, chanting, fighting & rdquor ;. The neighbor says that as a rule it is not possible for him to fall asleep before three in the morning.
The camera
Pesaresi has a specific objection: “I don’t like the fact that a person has a camera focused on my business, I don’t know if it’s a crime. I’ll check with my attorney if he’s prosecutable. I do not rule out filing a complaint & rdquor ;.
The neighbor maintains that the recording is legal: “There is a breach of the ordinance here, I started recording it to be able to report it. I have a permit from the Guardia Urbana. Request for a report on an infraction. The recorded material is automatically destroyed every 72 hours, I only keep the parts that represent evidence in case of a complaint. I do not rule out taking it to court & rdquor ;.
For now, he says, he has filed two complaints with the city council and 12 communications before, which are made through online forms from the Gràcia district.
the municipal version
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To questions from this newspaper, sources from the city council comment on the case that the consistory is in contact with the premises and that it has initiated “sanctioning procedures so that this situation is resolved immediately & rdquor ;. In the last two months, add the same sources, several inspections have been carried out and sanctioning procedures have been initiated “for irregularities detected due to excess capacity and noise & rdquor ;. All this, informs the city council, will end up in a file due to the aforementioned deficiencies.
However, it is not that the problem, which was interrupted with the confinement and closure of nightlife, started a few months ago. There has been noise for decades, says the neighbor, which he believes increased at one point. And it was not, according to him, because the tobacco law took customers who want to have a cigarette out on the street: “It was because of tourist pressure & rdquor ;.Pesaresi and the neighbor have never seen each other. “He has not deigned to talk to us & rdquor ;, says the owner, who one day came across an alarm triggered for hours in a window that he understood as revenge for the insomniac. But he denies being responsible for it. As he denies having hung the sign that was found one day at the door of the premises: ‘We neighbors will spoil your bar’.