“Sound violence dehumanizes neighbors.”

BarcelonaThere is more and more noise in Barcelona and the neighbors are tired of it. This Wednesday, the Xavecs association, Xarxa Veïnal Contra el Soroll, was officially presented, which brings together platforms, associations and citizens to combat noise pollution in the city. Platform representatives insist that environmental noise, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warns, is directly linked to high blood pressure, heart attacks, depression and fatigue. “If you don't understand that noise is a health issue, then you haven't understood anything,” said Enrique Navarro, spokesman for Stop Concerts and one of the founders of Xavecs.

In Barcelona, ​​the areas that suffer most from nightlife noise are in the l'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample, Consell de Cent or Plaça de Gràcia neighborhoods. But the Parallèlel del Poble-sec, the Raval, and the Triangle Golfo del Poblenou are some of the areas with the most active nightlife: bottles, bar terraces, music and Skaters They make noise at night, and violate citizens’ right to rest, as the platform claimed.

Despite being a problem affecting the entire city, the representatives expressed their regret at the absence of the Socialist councilors from the meeting: “Today it was very necessary for the representatives of the city council and the mayor to be present,” they criticized.

0 tolerance for nightlife

According to the new platform, Barcelona is an “entertainment city” and has more stadiums than any other city in Spain. For this reason, they asked the council to close the 24-hour shops at 10 at night, and referred to them as being responsible for young people consuming alcohol on the street. As for the terraces, they complain that with the expansions allowed after the Covid-19 pandemic, there is “excessive occupancy” of the public space. In this sense, they urge the municipal government to close it at ten o'clock at night from Monday to Friday. They also complain about the inconvenience caused by holding concerts in Montjuïc or festivals such as Cruella and Primavera Sound at the Forum and suggest moving them to alternative locations away from the city.

From Xavecs they also ask departments to reduce the decibels allowed in neighborhoods and expand the existing network of sound measuring devices to take advantage of the information they record. Although the World Health Organization considers 53 decibels throughout the day and 45 at night to be harmful to health, there are areas that far exceed it. The biggest victims are neighbors old City In general, but also those in the Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample and Vila de Gràcia neighborhoods and the Sant Gervasi-Galvany nightclub area, where sound level meters record averages Above 70 dB Weekend nights.

The platform insists that tourist apartments and student residences that turn into tourist accommodation in the summer are other spaces that contribute to noise and rudeness. They also ask that music activity using loudspeakers be limited, except on applicable public holidays. Along with restrictive measures, they call for an educational and communication protocol that allows “dissemination, awareness and reduction of serious noise problems.”