Yesterday I was working away at my desk when suddenly I caught sight of a woman on the roof of the building across the street – who was waving at me! So I cheerfully waved back and then thought – duh! – maybe she wants something. I opened the balcony door and said hello and found out that she did indeed want something. Turns out she’d seen me coming home late after a tapas tour last week and confronting the asshat who acts as a bouncer at the sleazy bar in my building. I mean, it was about 1 am and there were at least forty drunk teenagers hanging around outside my front door. So I took a photo of them and told the bouncer I’d call the police and show it to them if he didn’t DO SOMETHING immediately. Of course he made a pathetic showing of dispersing the crowd, which only lasted until I went inside.

Anyhow, the woman (Aracel) wanted to talk to me about DOING SOMETHING about this bar and the other illegal bar just up the street, which are both owned by the same person. I told Aracel that I actually had a petition signed by all but one tenant in my house (can never catch him at home) and was going to take it down to city hall this week. So she said she would get the president of their building management committee to write up a petition as well to present at the same time. After that I wrote to the woman who rents holiday apartments in the house next door (Ryan’s parents stayed there last month and complained about the noise) to see if she wanted to do the same. If she does then three houses with 6-8 apartments in each will have registered a formal complaint in the same week about these two bars. And just maybe that will make a difference.

You may recall that the scuzzy bar in my building was the one that caught fire in the middle of the night a couple of years ago.  There is no way he is operating within what his licence permits. The place doesn’t open until after 10 pm most nights and stays open until about 4 am. Then his other bar (pretty much in front of my bedroom balcony) opens at 6 am. And both of these bars attract a combination of underage drinkers and the absolute dregs of society who hang out in the street basically all night and well into the morning. We are hopeful that the closing of one “iconic” student bar a couple of weeks ago just around the corner from us means that city hall is trying to crack down on illegal opening times, as well as illegal drinking (and gawd knows what else) going on in the street. So wish us luck! It really feels good to suddenly have this unexpected support from my neighbours.