Barcelona City Council has launched a civic responsibility campaign with a very direct and decidedly unfriendly message. It says that people who urinate in the street or litter are shameless. And I would go further: vandals, like those who deface bus stops; or freeloaders, like those who don't pay on the metro.

They'll get a set menu at the bar next to the buffet, they say, because it's already very late and they don't have time to go home. She, determined, while writing a message to her son, who's at his driving lesson, tries to go inside. The door is automatic, but it doesn't open. She gives herself a loud thump on the nose, like in old-fashioned comedies. The man with her makes a gesture of annoyance and exclaims:Fuck"That's all I needed!"

Vacations are wonderful opportunities to change activities and thoughts. I've been able to stroll through England, far from London and its metropolitan area. Although I can't help but capture impressions, some are so shocking—despite being clichéd—that I can't help but comment on them, at the risk of revealing that I'm an angry Barcelona native and that I'm getting old.

Scattered and poorly sorted brush, papers and bottles left in the streets, shouting and music at night, dog droppings in parks and sidewalks, and even barbecues in public spaces and viral challenges to defecate in municipal swimming pools. These are some of the most frequent acts of behavior classified as uncivil by municipal ordinances and which carry fines that can exceed hundreds of euros.

With the approach of the major festivals of Gràcia, Sants and later La Mercè, Barcelona City Council has called for citizens to behave with "civility and individual responsibility". Although complaints for anti-social behaviour remain at the same rate as other years, some phenomena such as the illegal street parties known as botellones seem to have become entrenched despite night venues reopening and the end of the covid-related restrictions that marked the last two summers. "Some situations are worrying," admitted the first deputy mayor for Security, Albert Batlle, after the control meeting on security and civility to assess the first week of August. On Tuesday 2, the increase in penalties for botellones came into force. This means fines for minor infringements will go from €60 to €100, while more serious complaints will increase from €100 to between €300 y €600. In just the six days the measure has been in force, 747 complaints have been filed, at an average of 124 per day.

The Casc Antic and Barceloneta have never been quiet neighborhoods when summer arrives, but this year, with the end of the restrictions, the situation exceeds any past time. The desire to party, mainly among young people, complicates the weekend nights, which in this part of the city begin on Thursdays. "It's very bad. The noise is much worse than it was before the pandemic", complains Elena Marti, a resident of Barceloneta. "As the beach has been one of the first places to open, it's as if many people have discovered it and have taken a liking to drinking there", she says. Another place that seems to have more and more people every day is the Born. In this neighbourhood the party started even before the end of the state of alarm and has now increased. "I understand that it has been very hard and that young people need to go out and socialize, but not everyone has to suffer this. We need to sleep. With the narrow streets of the neighborhood the sound rises a lot", says Asun Justo, a member of the Association of Neighbors of Casc Antic. The organization began to receive complaints from neighbours about the noise at night and decided to convene an assembly to address the issue: "So many people came that we had to take the chairs and change places because we could not fit", explains Asun. At that meeting, some neighbours decided that from midnight on they would start throwing water from the balconies, that they would start collecting signatures to take them to the Ombudsman and that they would demonstrate in the streets of the city. The Barceloneta Neighbourhood Association joined the call scheduled for today and this afternoon hundreds of residents of the two neighbourhoods have taken to the streets to demand a response from the City Council. The protests have begun in different neighbourhoods and have coincided in the Via Laietana with Princesa street, where they have cut traffic with posters calling for "enough noise" and demanding "the right to rest".