“Noisy” bars, restaurants and clubs

As Barcelona’s mainstream music concert and festival scene explodes with life, those small venues where at one time you could catch equally talented - but not-so-commercial- acts around the city are in fast decline, the result of a neighbour-led war against ‘noisy’ bars, restaurants and clubs.

No-one can deny the infernal ear-splitting noise emanating from the centre of Barcelona: Low flying planes and helicopters, garbage trucks, pneumatic drills, horn-blasting drivers in traffic jams, gas-bottle sellers singing butano, children screaming, adults screaming, periodic explosions of party packs of ‘dynamite’ at every conceivable festive occasion, TVs blaring through windows, waiters cleaning their coffee machines with the sharp bang of metal on metal, the tourists dragging their suitcases, whining alley cats on heat and hemmed-in neighbours’ dogs howling; the perpetual police, ambulance, and fire engines’ sirens, and not forgetting the smallest, but, conversely, the most menacing man/ machine noise combination in Spain: the teenager and the rasping motor scooter. Overall, this turbulent concoction of sound makes Barcelona one of the noisiest cities in Europe, if not - barring war zones - the world.

Lluis Gallado, a lawyer from abogados contra ruido (Lawyers against Noise), is very concerned. He and his colleagues see noise as a big, big evil, incredibly detrimental to the mental and physical well-being of the human condition, “Noise was used as a form of torture in Iraq. They forced headphones on prisoners and exposed them to loud music to prevent them from sleeping, to break them down more quickly��?, explains Lluis.

“Barcelona is unbearably noisy because of defects in town planning, which betray a general ignorance about noise issues. Take Hospital Clinic, for example, it’s surrounded by a fire station, an ambulance depot, three bus routes, a metro line, and two three-lane carriageways on either side of it. There are a lot of ill people in there that have to deal with all this noise��?, says Lluis.

In such an absurdly noisy city as Barcelona, it would seem unfair to single out anyone in particular to take the rap for all the racket. But in Barcelona there appears to be an abundance of people willing to cast the first stone, mainly those individuals living above and around the city’s bars and restaurants, most commonly referred to as “los vecinos��? (the neighbours). Luis Gallado: “If we realize there’s something personal happening, and the neighbour is using the law as a weapon to attack another neighbour– we won’t accept the case.��?

Over the last six years, as Barcelona’s run-down city centre areas like the Raval have been ‘revitalized’ copying the process of gentrification happening in New York and London, property in the centre has become like gold dust, and as a result the population of these neighbourhoods has undergone a transformation. Working class communities are beginning to disappear, being replaced by the wealthier middle classes. Is it mere coincidence that these social changes coincide with the rise of neighbour power? These new neighbours with their lower tolerance to noise have been quick to organize and act against places of commerce. Now it’s commonplace to see banners protesting against bars, clubs and tourists hanging from balconies in all the main plazas .

This year, legal action from neighbours has resulted in two bar owners going to prison for noise pollution. Barcelona’s groundbreaking and controversial “Portet��? case saw one restauranteur sentenced to four years. The presiding judge also slammed the City Council’s representatives for not acting sooner on neighbours’ complaints, promising if it happened again they too would face criminal charges. This threat, which sent shockwaves through the City Council, led to a complete reversal in their approach, and coincided with a large number of bars, clubs and restaurants facing closing orders for noise pollution around the city.

No doubt the City Council’s new fast-track approach pleases the neighbours and protects the Council employees from charges of ineffectuality, but the implicated business, which may or may not be guilty of noise pollution, is forced into a process of slow suffocation: without any customers their flow of income is cut off, but their rent, bills and staff wages are still due; add to this lawyer’s fees and the cost of modifying their premises to cut noise emissions- the usual prerequisite for re-opening. Any business owner in this position could easily be forgiven for throwing in the towel - to stick it out and fight your corner means risking a lot of money.

The once large variety of live-music venues that used to fill up this vibrant city are disappearing at a frightening rate – even the famous Harlem Jazz Club has visits from the police due to neighbours’ complaints. Noise pollution laws are certainly necessary in Barcelona. And there clearly should be sanctions on the bar and club owners who create a disturbance late at night, but at the same time, there should be measures put in place to protect these businesses from persecution from neighbours abusing these laws in search of compensation, or to settle a score, when they have nothing to lose, and the business owner, everything. It’s in the interest of conquering noise pollution that these “noise wars��? are stopped, and we look instead for peace , understanding and co-operation.

Source