SKATEBOARD BAN THREATENS BARCELONA’S MACBA SPOT
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Spain’s most famous active skate spot is in danger of becoming a no-fly zone. This morning, a post on MACBA LIFE’s Instagram account pleaded with skaters around the world to follow basic skate etiquette before the city of Barcelona bans skating at MACBA. This would be a huge loss for skateboarding, but you can help the spot to avoid the axe.
“Don’t Skate In Joaquin Costa. Don’t Skate At Night. Take Your Trash Out. Respect The Pedestrians.” These are just a few of MACBA LIFE’s requests of local and visiting skaters in the #SAVEMACBA campaign post. The plaza has become notorious in the past for petty crime and general nonsense—it was even featured in Scam City, the show about con men and pickpockets—with traveling teams telling epic stories of footage lost forever in stolen camera bags. But crime isn’t isolated to only one plaza in the city; the truth behind the ban is much less fantastic.
“We want to find a better solution than to ban skating at MACBA.”
We asked JART’s Alex Braza (founder of MACBA LIFE) about what brought all this on in the first place. “We’re talking to the government and the neighbors, and they see that we’re on their side. The main problem is the noise at night,” Braza says. “We want to find a better solution than to ban skating at MACBA.”
Braza expects to meet with the city again, hopefully with some measurable proof that the SAVE MACBA campaign is working. It’s really all up to the skaters at this point and, sadly, it’s really just common sense (you know, the “golden rule”). Even though MACBA’s fate isn’t entirely up to him, Braza is keeping the faith. “If people get more conscientious about it we will keep the spot.”
Subscribe to MACBA LIFE on Instagram, and on Twitter, for more updates on this situation in Barcelona. And don’t forget to hashtag #SAVEMACBA.
