Not being able to rest even in your own home is a torture that only you can understand in all its magnitude who suffers it, like the half dozen testimonies that speak, that vent, below. From Sant Martí to Eixample passing through the always pressed Ciutat Vella district, both for tourism, which is once again roaring loudly, and for nightlife, two of the main sources of noise. The Barcelona City Council has detected 11 points in the city where nightlife generates health problems for the surrounding residents. Limit situations that sometimes force them to take medication to be able to fall asleep or to have to have all the windows closed in the middle of a heat wave to try to shelter from outside noise, which in some areas does not stop day or night, it only changes the notes.
According to a recent study by the Public Health Agency, 57% of Barcelonans live with unacceptable noise levels. People from Barcelona like Nuri, a neighbor of Joan de Borbó, where, in addition to the noise, the urine in the goals is added; o Isabel, resident of Enric Granados, Eixample street where there are almost more terraces than blocks of flats. Or Esther, a resident of Orwell Square who has spent years listening to the same songs on a loop under her window from the street musicians who comb the terraces of the always bustling square.
Barceloneta
Last summer, the incivility suffered by the residents of Barcelona reached the point that neighborhood guards were installed on balconies and windows. The seaside neighborhood is one of the places where the effects of mass tourism show their most undesirable side. La Barceloneta maintains its fight for a life in which urine and screams have no place and in which pedicabs, the latest ‘plague’, do not roam freely. “This situation affects you in everything, in character, and in health,” says a neighbor of Joan de Borbó. Here the neighborhood complaint of Barceloneta is expanded.
The squares of Gràcia
Nights of closed windows and plugs in the ears to be able to sleep. This is how the weekend life of the residents of one of the neighborhoods with the greatest tradition of nightlife among youth is summed up. What was a tradition in Plaza del Sol has spread to other plazas in Gràcia, as a neighbor from Virreina and one from Raspall tell us. The drama of living with noise pollution.
Raval and the Gothic
No less noisy are two central areas such as the Raval and the Gòtic, a place of frequent nocturnal pilgrimage, both by locals and foreigners. Terraces, nightlife venues and a setting such as Plaza del Àngels, Plaza del Macba, and its surroundings have become a place where sleeping in peace is not easy. The residents of the area comment on it with evident desperation.
Enrique Granados
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Few streets like Enric Granados exemplify what a use plan should not be. With 114 neighboring farms and 111 bar terraces, this Eixample street is one of those that will be mobilized on the 16th to ask for effective solutions to guarantee neighborhood rest. Those who live there do not hide a feeling of helplessness in the face of the overwhelming presence of restaurants and entertainment venues.
Poble Nou
The so-called ‘gulf triangle’ of Poblenou has become one of the axes that raises the most concern due to night-time excesses. Seventy of its neighbors have gathered on the SOS Triangle Gulf platform (the city council calls it Triángulo Lúdico) to try to reverse the situation. The party starts on Wednesday and lasts until Sunday. Unsustainable to the point that it is inevitable to fall into despair, as explained by a resident of the Pere IV area for 20 years.
The city council installs sound level meters in June to start measures against noise in July
Given the situation caused by night noise in various neighborhoods of the city, and after the ERC proposed it in a municipal plenary session, the city council is installing sound level meters in the 11 areas that are considered most affected. In some they were already posted: in the Plaza del Sol, Diamant, Revolució, Virreina, Nord, Vila. In others these weeks are being placed. Councilor Eloi Badia told this newspaper that once the measurements are known, from July measures will be taken that may be different depending on the area and the type of problem. Because the councilman differentiates the noise of the public of an establishment from the bottles.
“If it is confirmed that the areas analyzed are stressed, measures will be proposed for each street, in dialogue with the neighbors, with the restorers. It is possible that the hours of the terraces will be reduced, the sale of drinks will be monitored & rdquor ;, he adds. The maximums allowed vary according to the zones. To cite examples of areas that suffer from the problem, in the squares of Gràcia, the maximum level allowed is 70 decibels from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; 60 decibels from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. On Carrer Pere IV, between Pujades and Fluvià, 60 decibels from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Neighbors of Gràcia criticize that the council, in the meetings they hold with them, ignore the peaks and focus on the averages, which lowers the figures. In addition, they do not take into account weekend night celebrations, in some cases, acoustic hells, as they are considered exceptional. This summer there will be a specific call for grants to soundproof homes. Regarding the concentration against noise pollution that will take place this Thursday in front of the town hall, Badia declares: “We have to be empathic with the people who demonstrate. It is a health problem.” As for whether the battle against noise can be won in the short term, the councilor replies: “The improvement has to be constant. Every year has to be better than the previous one”.