vía Europe\’s New War on Nightlife – Feargus O\’Sullivan – The Atlantic Cities.
El problema de las externalidades negativas de la vida nocturna en las ciudades, afectando la vida de vecinos de restaurantes, bares, discotecas y otros lugares de entretenimiento nocturno, especialmente aquellos con clientela joven y escandalosa. Debe buscarse una forma de conciliar derechos de ambos grupos de ciudadanos evitando que lo que uno hace afecte al otro. La solucion ideal esta en que para el transeunte que deambula por la banqueta frente al establecimiento, su existencia sea imperceptible y pase desapercibida.
Milan intentó instituir la prohibición de vender helados después de la medianoche . Parte de un endurecimiento a la restriccion de vender comida y bebidas hasta tarde, en la noche. – . La norma resultó ser demasiado estupida y se elimino Pero este es el más extraño de una serie de ataques a la vida nocturna en las ciudades europeas que han surgido recientemente.
Tómese Madrid, por ejemplo. Con larga tradicion de vida social hasta altas horas de la noche , el centro de la ciudad fue declarado «zona de bajo nivel de ruido» en septiembre pasado, y el Ayuntamiento se ha negado a conceder licencias del club y bar desde entonces. Aunado con el aumento de impuestos a las ventas de bebidas, esto ha conducido a 60 a 100 clubes nocturnos a cerrar en Madrid desde que las reglas se pusieron en marcha. En realidad, esto no ha hecho la ciudad más tranquila, sin embargo. En un país donde el Botellón – la gente se reune y bebe al aire libre – una tradición de muchos años, hace que los jóvenes simplemente compran bebidas de vendedores ambulantes y se salen a las calles a beber y charlar, creando una situación que a nadie satisface .
La vida nocturna parisina asimismo ha estado batallando con el control policial mas estricto durante algunos años, lo que llevo a Le Monde a llamar a la ciudad la «Capital Europea del aburrimiento» en el 2009. Citando el rechazo habitual de la policía de las solicitudes de licencia de uso de un club una sola noche y la actitud de censura de los funcionarios de París, un estudio de la alcaldia de Paris , referido en Le Monde , encontro que planear salidas a clubs nocturnos era mucho más difícil en París que en Londres, Berlín, Amsterdam o Barcelona.
Not that things are much rosier in these supposed nightlife capitals either. A report in the Netherlands’ Volkskrant last week noted that young Amsterdammers are increasinglygiving up on legal nightlife altogether. Instead, they’re flocking to covert underground events after a series of recent clampdowns on alleged public nuisances, including such heinous crimes as people barbecuing in the city’sVondelpark. Even in Berlin things are looking dicey, though for different reasons. Here at least the city’s sprawling layout and abundance of post-industrial space means that nightclubs mostly have space to breathe and residents have space to sleep. Despite this, the walls are closing in on nightlife in Berlin too, thanks to the devastatingly efficient national performance rights group GEMA, somewhat similar to the RIAA in the U.S. GEMA is currently trying to make German bars and clubs pay a commission on all music they play, a move that could quickly make life impossible for small bars and clubs. Even Berlin’s most celebrated club,Berghain, has cancelled an expansion to free up funds for future royalty payments.
Late-night socializing has been a feature of European cities for centuries. That these clampdown efforts are all happening now may be due to shifting demographics: while Europe’s population is getting older and less tolerant of nighttime congestion, its young people are getting poorer, and are thus more likely to socialize outside. Given high unemployment levels, especially among the young, many also have fewer reasons to wake up early. Al fresco drinking has been a feature of Spanish cities for decades, but there’s been a marked recent move from bars to sidewalks in Athens, for example. Smoking bans have also upped noise levels, pushing smokers out of doors.
Areas in European cities where nightlife clusters have also changed socially. In the past, these once cheapish inner city areas offered enough ex-industrial space for bars and clubs to expand into. Formerly home to working class populations, their numbers have since thinned out by suburban drift, and in the past decade many of these city centers have come to be seen as the height of urban desirability, their populations growing markedly wealthier with each new wave of gentrification. Judging by the Europe-wide rash of anti-nightlife measures, these new populations are also particularly adept at making their voices heard by authority. It’s no small irony that it’s often been growing nightlife scenes that initially makes such areas attractive to wealthier outsiders and developers, who then find they can’t stomach it.
There’s more to backlashes against nightlife than high-end NIMBYism, of course. It’s easy to sympathize with long-term residents of areas like Budapest’s District 7 or London’s Dalston, who have found their once nocturnally quiet neighborhoods newly overrun by late-night crowds. Nightlife is often the thin end of gentrification’s wedge, as bars displace longstanding businesses, creating ugly contrasts such as this new London hipster diner that appeared to replace an Asian women’s advisory service.
Protesting such crassness still doesn’t answer the question of where people who like dancing and drinking should go. Out to more unused ex-industrial spaces (if they can still find them)? Back in the late 1980s, the police backlash against the British rave scene’s use of far-flung warehouses was even more intense than what’s happening now.
Still, as older European generations are bequeathing young people little beyond unemployment, low pay and disillusion, it’s unsurprising that the wishes of Europe’s younger nocturnal crowds are being given low priority. Much of the debate around night and the city pits «concerned residents» against business owners, the actual people filling bars and clubs addressed as some form of noxious petri dish smear, of concern only for the volume of vomit, urine and stabbings they produce.
But for many city dwellers, nightlife is important as good transit, historic buildings or a lively cultural scene. Nightclubs and late bars are one of the few places where the city’s much-vaunted promises of diversity and social mingling can actually come true. Not just places where people get wasted, they’re also places where communities are made, where new music and ideas get created and spread. Sure, they’re driven by profit and can be elitist and exclusive (just like farmer’s markets, cafés and restaurants, sports clubs, theaters – the list goes on), but for many (especially minorities), clubs offer supportive, safer spaces absent elsewhere. I personally would be a sadder, narrower, less well-informed person if I hadn’t spent my early adulthood in the sort of places Europe’s anti-nightlife war is harassing out of existence. Letting unchecked noise spoil people’s sleep is not the answer, but neither is pressuring bars and clubs until the only places that can keep their doors open are the Walmarts of the clubbing world.
Top image: Maxim Blinkov/Shutterstock.com
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