11/24/2020 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 11/24/2020 6:00 AM
The sequence is repeated at least three times a week.
The cars arrive loaded with young people.
In the trunks there are speakers and ice cream parlors with bottles of fernet or cases of beer.
Rounds are formed around the cars.
As the night progresses, the volume of the speakers grows.
The volume of people, too.
In total there are dozens of speakers, each with its music and its people.
The scenario, in its most extreme version, resembles the
summer parties
on the beaches of the Buenos Aires coast, but everything happens in a small square in
Parque Patricios
and in the middle of the pandemic.
And in many other
public spaces in the City and Greater Buenos Aires.
"The strongest is from Thursday to Saturday. But sometimes any day they are," says a neighbor to
Clarín
.
The woman lives in front of the
Coronel Pringles square, in Caseros al 3000
, and prefers not to identify herself.
She is one of a group of neighbors who call 911 every weekend to complain about the
"open air bowling alley"
that forms in the green portion delimited by Monteagudo, Corrales viejo, Patagones and Caseros avenues.
The woman says the sequence started
two months ago
.
"At first it seemed unstoppable. I don't know if it was because of the euphoria of going out, but there were 400 boys in one morning," he says.
"Now there are not always hundreds but they are still many," he continues. "I think they took the square
as a replacement for the bowling alley
because the attitude they have is the same as they would in these spaces: they shout, drink and dance to the very loud music."
With the difference, he adds, that
there are no bathrooms:
"They drink and drink, and urinate there or on the sidewalk. The next day there is a smell all over the block. In addition to the dirt they leave behind."
On November 19, residents filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office of the City of Buenos Aires.
In the document they speak of a "massive" turnout every morning.
They also affirm that the behaviors carried out by young people
"disturb rest, coexistence or public tranquility"
and that the noises "due to their volume, repetition or persistence, exceed normal tolerance."
"Having exhausted the instance of calling the police to intervene and prevent such conduct, we turn to this prosecutor's office to appoint inspectors who verify such violations and take the necessary measures to stop them," the text closes.
The biggest annoyance is the noise but among the neighbors there is also the concern that the square will become a focus of the spread of the coronavirus.
"They are all night,
without a chinstrap
, dancing, without distance. On a Saturday there were people until 10 in the morning, as if nothing," adds another neighbor, who also asks not to be identified.
"I get tired of calling 911, but I get tired," he emphasized, "and they tell me that it depends on the police station."
The woman describes that police mobiles sometimes pass and sometimes do not.
When they pass, "they do not attract their attention. (The young people) lower the volume a little and when the patrol car goes up again. They tease them. It seems to me that the police do not care either."
According to the account of the neighbors, in the most affected block - Corrales Viejos -
there is a family with a 20-day-old baby
, there are elderly people and adults.
"It is a lack of respect and it changed our lives," he complains.
"Sometimes I go to work without sleeping. I feel like I have a bowling alley in my room."
The clandestine parties occurred throughout the quarantine.
And they keep happening.
Two weeks ago there was a massive crowd at the
Planetarium
.
And beyond the City there were also complaints in La Plata, Córdoba and Tucumán.
According to estimates by IDEAr, the Argentine entertainment industry, in the last 8 months more than 3,000 parties and clandestine events were held, mainly in the Federal Capital, Province of Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Córdoba and Rosario.
SC