The New Jersey barriers

Perhaps because I don't smoke, I'm not a big fan of sitting on terraces. I like to eat or dine without being observed by passersby and I like to be in a place with an air conditioning system. For a drink, I will also always prefer the interior (the darkness, the music, the sound of the shakers...) but there are times when, pushed by companions, I sit on a terrace very comfortably. Younger people like terraces a lot precisely because of the informality they represent.

Sometimes, this summer, I have gone with adults and teenagers to Barcelona and we have ended up having a drink. Then, the Dry Martini terrace seemed like a good option, because next to it is the Brina ice cream parlor, and you can send the minors to Brina ---you see them--- while you have, for example, that gin and tonic they have, called Silver Cloud.

On vacation in Priorat, in the wine bars (for example, the recommendable La Bachanal, in Falset) I have sat on the terrace, and incidentally, I have seen that very close to me people from the wine world were sitting. At the next table was Sara Pérez, and at the one beyond, Silvia Puig (two winemakers I greatly admire). In any case, whether I sit on a terrace or not, I really like that they exist and I like to see them full.

I read that "the war of the terraces returns to Barcelona" and that "the modification of the norm opens the door to consolidate a good part of the 10,000 new temporary tables". I like to walk through the cities of the world and see the terraces, but perhaps because they are beautiful. You see those small, round, marble tables in Paris, or those others, with checkered tablecloths, in Rome or New York, those tables with colorful wooden chairs, in Athens, and it's no surprise that they serve as a setting for romantic movies.

All the restaurateurs in Barcelona have done what they could to beautify their terraces in the middle of the street, delimited by these yellow fences called New Jersey. They have put pots, decorated fruit boxes... Some already have iron pots, which act as a perimeter, with advertising for the Alhambra beer brand (very clever).

I know that New Jersey barriers are a momentary solution, but there has to be one that is global, that is well thought out, that is not a patch. In Barcelona there is much better weather than in Paris and New York and that there are terraces seems logical and seems inevitable. But I think that, looking to the future, who knows if in the ordinances designed for the following pandemics, we have to be able to avoid the yellow fences.