Residents of Barceloneta are demanding that the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni put order once and for all on the neighborhood's beaches.
"We have a lot of tourists who leave the clubs drunk every morning and go to sleep on the beach - laments Manel Martínez, from the association of residents on this side of the city-. They used to sleep in the cars, but lately, with the heat, they prefer to throw themselves on the sand or wherever they feel like it, wherever... And, of course, after them, after the drunk tourists, we also have a lot of thieves; they have so much work that some also settle on the beach, on the promenade, in any corner of the neighborhood!”
"In fact - continued the spokesperson of the neighborhood association of Barceloneta -, we already have a couple of particularly conflicting points on the promenade, one where the thieves gather and do their thing, and another where several people spend the day drinking and drug dealing. Every summer they look worse. These places are usually full of dirt. Many neighbors shun them. Maybe the new municipal government is not stubborn to recover the public space of the city? Maybe the beaches don't make up a large part of Barcelona's public space? But we don't just have a public order problem, we also have a social one".
The neighborhood representative of the city's most maritime neighborhood refers to the Endreça plan, the great counter-offensive of the Collboni executive in order to rebuild and tidy up coexistence in the city's streets and squares, to reduce noise, graffiti, bottles, peddling, urinating in any corner and any other display of incivility. La Vanguardia explained this Sunday that many low-cost tourists and locals are spending this summer on the beaches of Barceloneta - to save even the cost of a bunk bed in a hostel - and also how these sands popular also became the refuge of many people in very complicated situations.
"Indeed - confirms the representative of the neighborhood residents' association -. To the low-cost tourists, the crooks and the thieves who chase them, we must add the growing street vending without a permit, the continuous succession of sellers of, mojitos, massages, parasols, temporary tattoos, beer cans... A lot people in the neighborhood are tired of having to say no all the time. She feels expelled from a place she had always used. And, well, some of these sellers also live on the beach. That's why we say that it's not just a public order problem, we also have a social problem".
Martínez also warns that many of the street vendors do not live only on the beach, many also do so crowded together in small neighborhoods. "Very dangerous situations are occurring. A few years ago, three bike taxi drivers died in a fire in some flats". Yes, seven people lived in that apartment of just thirty m2. "These situations are intensifying", concludes the neighbor's association.
