What if the parks in Barcelona opened earlier?
Several women and their trainer are stretching on Avinguda Pau Casals, in front of the closed gate of Turó Park, around two quarter past ten in the morning. "If they opened it earlier, we would go in earlier", they say. "They open very late, the park." "Yes, usually around ten." "And if you compare it with the timetables of other European cities...". "We are in Barcelona, in the Mediterranean!".
It is a common scene in this part of the city, that of people exercising in Pau Casals, and also running around Turó Park, waiting for it to open, as detailed by Bartolomé Criado, from the neighborhood association and merchants in the area. "We would be better off with more European schedules. That they open at eight o'clock. It's not normal for them to do it this late. We are not just talking about Turó Park, but about all the parks in Barcelona. Many people would be very happy to be able to run in the park in the early hours”.
Barcelona has 156 parks and island interiors, the 499 entrances of which open between nine in the morning, at the earliest - in reality they are very few - and ten, to be precise - the majority. They don't all do it at the same time because this is done by a few gardeners who organize several routes and open them one after the other.
"After the pandemic, people go to the parks more - says Luis Sanglas, from the Pedralbes neighborhood association - and with climate change, sportsmen wake up more in the morning. Many run along the Diagonal, but between traffic lights, cars and bikes it is not the same. We asked them to advance the opening of the gardens of the Pedralbes Palace and the Cervantes Park, but they told us that there was no staff".
The City Council usually dispatches these requests in an expeditious manner. Unless the residents get organized, collect signatures, redouble the pressure... as happened three years ago in the neighborhood of Putxet and Farró, when people convinced the Parks and Gardens officials to advance a couple of hours opening of Putxet hill. "Since they open at eight, more people come to play sports - says one of the promoters of that initiative. And many people also like to walk the dog early in the day. If we asked people now, they would say that eight o'clock seems late to them, that they would prefer the park to open earlier."
Cities such as Milan, Vienna and so on between half past seven and eight o'clock, a schedule similar to that of the nearest towns, such as Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza, Malaga, Seville... "And in Paris between seven o'clock and eight, in New York around six, and in London some even at five. In addition, in many cities the timetables vary according to the characteristics of each venue. Here, however, everything seems more rigid. And we don't have many parks open 24 hours either."
Dog owners are another group interested in parks opening earlier. "Leashed dogs can walk in many parks, and for many citizens these spaces are very necessary - explains Ángela Coll, from the citizens' platform Espai Gos. Numerous areas for dogs in the city are very conflicting. Many dogs cannot use it. They feel better in parks. But with these schedules there is no way to take a decent walk before going to work. And on top of that, they close very early, especially in winter."
Very soon and little by little, as the hours of sunshine decrease, the parks in Barcelona will advance their closing time. In principle, during the summer season the parks close around nine o'clock at night, and during the winter season, around seven o'clock. Although sometimes you can find some open at midnight. "The closure should also be reviewed - says Criado, from Turó Park. Sometimes they forget to close a door and some take the opportunity to make a fuss. And some nights they leave someone inside without realizing it... a couple stuck together, someone who gets lost...".
"We were chatting on the swings - says a young woman, at TuróPark - and we thought the gardener had seen us, but he didn't. We called the Guardia Urbana and told them that we had been locked out, and they told us that they would come, but that it would take a while, that if we could, we should get out on our own. On the pipi cà side the fence is lower. Then we found a gentleman with two dogs who had been hiding from the gardener! In Turó Park, dogs are only allowed to pee, and the man couldn't jump the fence, so we had to help him, and so did his dogs."
"Yes - interjects Coll, from Espai Gos -, the closures depend on the gardeners' routes, and they are a little irregular. One season we saw how on some days the Aigües park closed later than usual. In the end we found out that this happened every time Barça played in the Champions League! Until the game was over, the gardener didn't come."
At the moment, advancing the opening of the parks is not on the municipal agenda. In any case, the City Council is trying to improve the conditions of the closure. He recently put his tender out for competition. "The closing service is complex - say sources from Parks and Gardens. It needs specialized staff to close many spaces in a short time and react quickly to any incident. For example, a detached branch, an act of vandalism, a water leak... The new contract still in process pays special attention to these issues". The workers will be well equipped with tapes to isolate spaces, scissors, chains and shears, all the tools needed to fix locks on the spot...
The closures will continue to be staggered, and each of the nine employees in charge will have three hours to complete their route, they can be extended until ten at night in the winter and twelve in the summer - so some parks will have to close an hour earlier than originally scheduled. But the new contract incorporates a geolocation system that will allow Parks and Gardens to be aware of each one at all times. That way no one will be able to do the ronso to watch the Barça matches. The new contract also establishes a reduced response time when weather alerts force us to close the parks unexpectedly."
The new contract also emphasizes that workers must ensure that no one is left inside the premises. In no case, however, will they use horns or other elements that disturb the neighborhood's rest. The treatment of the citizen, which can also be read in the terms and conditions, "must follow correct guidelines of care and respect". In the event that homeless people are found, the person in charge must keep the premises open and notify the emergency services.
