Barcelona is witnessing the last moments of the long era of New Jersey. There are barely a couple of establishments left in the city with the virus emergency terraces arranged on the road during the pandemic and flanked by these yellow concrete barriers.
Municipal sources detail that the progressive and tremendously expected removal of the asphalt, during the last two and a half years, of nearly 3,000 New Jersey model barriers and of some 6,700 plastic barriers led to the recovery of up to 5,072 parking spaces motorcycle parking. Some are new, others have been rescued after the end of the temporary terraces. In this way, at the moment, the pavements of Barcelona are a little more spacious. The city reaches more than 270,000 motorbikes. It is not a definitive solution, but a valuable contribution.
In addition, City Council sources add, the return to pre-pandemic normality also made it possible to enable up to 731 parking spaces for cars. Of all these spaces, 68% are in the green zone, 18% in the blue zone, 6% for residents, and the rest are dedicated to non-regulated car parks, official reserves, ambulances... The end of the very long era of the New Jersey has also allowed to open 471 linear meters of loading and unloading area.
These 3,000 New Jersey rest on a large plot of land belonging to the Horta-Guinardó District Council. Its withdrawal involved a municipal expenditure of around 370,000 euros. The truth is that the recovery of normality was, for these latitudes, unusually convoluted. Especially if we take a look at what happened in a few Spanish cities. Three concrete barriers and their airs of a city mired in a war conflict still flank the three tables and nine chairs arranged, initially provisionally, on the road in front of number 7 of Carrer Escultor Llimona during the hardest moments of the pandemic, towards the year 2020, that's what it's all about...
"We will, of course, remove the New Jersey barriers in a few weeks - interjects Jonathan Martínez, behind the bar of this restaurant in the Nou Barris district, the Tropical -. What happened was that we were running out of time, and everything got complicated. The first budget for the definitive terrace model approved by the City Council was very expensive, around 20,000 euros, and we had to look for another cheaper one, of around 15,000, also approved by the City Council, because none we can't give up this terrace anyway, because now people love to be outside, in the open air, even if it's there, on the road... We hope to finish fixing the papers with the City Council very soon, these same days".
At first, during those apocalyptic moments when drinking a latte in a bar seemed like a victory in the face of fatal adversity, it seemed to everyone a very appropriate solution, that of New Jersey. But then, very soon, as political corrections and administrative problems encased them in so many streets, these barriers became a source of public shame, another disturbing element in Barcelona's public space.
In total, during the pandemic, the City Council authorized the installation of 1,550 terraces on the roads in order to mitigate the economic consequences of the restrictions imposed. According to sources from the Barcelona Restoration Guild, in the end up to 651 caretakers were permanently consolidated. We are talking about 8,496 chairs, arranged mainly in the Eixample, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Sants-Montjuïc districts.
At the time La Vanguardia monitored the recovery of normality in several cities. Seville, Bilbao and Palma, where the terraces are also deeply rooted, places where hundreds of caretakers were also temporarily enabled to lend a helping hand to the restoration, they came to rebuild their public space in a very few months.
What is happening is that here in Barcelona many more vigilantes than in many other cities were definitively consolidated. And this led to a process that became very complicated. The officials did not give the scope, sunk in a sea of requests. And the truth is that the municipal government, then led by the mayoress Ada Colau, who felt very comfortable leaving parking spaces for private vehicles, had no choice but to retreat in the face of the complaints of many neighborhood organizations who understood that the 'The city council was taking too much care of the restoration, which was leaving aside the fight against noise pollution.
Especially in the Eixample district, the City Council tightened its requirements. Establishments selected by the Consistory itself to test and publicize the new approved models of terrace called to retire forever the barriers New Jersey saw in the end rejected the requests for definitive consolidation of their provisional guardians. This is the case, for example, of La Granja La Crema, between Diputació and Muntaner streets, or the Sagardi restaurant, a little further up, between Aragó and Muntaner. At the moment, the two chamfers are once again dedicated to the car park. In the first, the City Council provided three spaces in the blue zone, and in the second, where the terrace was larger, about three more in the blue zone and a couple more for the disabled.
"In the end we ended up in court - they explain these days at the farm in question -. A few days ago they took our new caretaker. We spent about 3,000 euros to legalize it and in the end they take it away from us? Yes, it was his proposal! But suddenly the City Council said that this area was saturated". In the restaurant they considered presenting a battle, but in the end they gave up. In this way, the administrative process, already huge in itself, got bogged down in an avalanche of resources.
Resignations also proved an unexpected problem. Many businesses could not overcome the accumulated losses. And also a handful of restaurateurs didn't want to keep these watchmen so close to everyday traffic. So a bunch of New Jersey orphans, occupying a few stretches of road for nothing. The images were completely illustrative in front of number 88 on Carrer Villarroel, where E l Rincón de Laura closed its doors. And also a few numbers up, next to the Colombia Pan y Sabor bakery. Rubbish was simply piled up in these areas of the road. Meanwhile, motorbikes were piling up on the sidewalks. Today, they finally serve a purpose.
