On Facebook, thousands of citizens mobilize for their city. They are groups of neighbors who seek the best for their neighborhood or parish, even if sometimes this desire clashes with the idea of a more inclusive public space.
Gonçalo Matos24 years old, final year in Computer Science Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, is the coordinator of the nucleus Neighbors of Bethlehem. Devote at least an hour a day to it. "The time is guaranteed but sometimes more is needed." He lives in Belém, a Lisbon parish that he said was particularly disinterested in citizenship. "There was not a single neighborhood association here." Gonçalo has always been interested in what was happening around him, seeking to scrutinize the projects for the city and collaborate with the local power. Training the Neighbors of Bethlehem in September 2019 came naturally. "Only by involving people will we build democracy and prevent the worst from happening to it"he believes, defending a model of open, informed citizenship based on a constructive and collaborative intervention of the citizens with the local elected officials. "People should not always fall into easy criticism and alienate themselves from what is happening. They have to feel that they form a team with those who govern them, and only then can they also walk, with sufficient legitimacy, over those in decision-making positions."
The Neighbors of Bethlehem are one of several neighborhood collectives that have been springing up spontaneously in the city to deal with the problems of each parish, discussing them among themselves neighbors and seeking, together, solutions with the Parish Council or the City Council. The meeting point is on Facebook, a group where more than 5200 members live together - not all of them are from the parish, of course. "Citizenship movements are where the people are. We use social media to aggregate the people in each parish and allow people to spread the word easily." Mobility is a recurring theme, as are urban planning projects, the maintenance of green spaces, or the cleaning of streets. There are also posts asking for recommendations, requests for help with lost pets, sharing beautiful photos or even compliments from time to time. The flow of new shares is daily and constant.
In a collaborative posture, Gonçalo moderates the content that any member can share in the Facebook group. He ensures that there are no comments with an advertising or insulting tone, and encourages debates around important topics, such as the construction of a new bike lane or a new subdivision. To this end, it makes a selection of the most relevant information, presents it to the members, assesses the general opinion of the group, and asks for opinions from people who, in the core, are more in touch with the discussed topic. For Gonçalo, this is above all a work of "organizing Democracy" and also to facilitate bridges of contact with politicians. "We can't get 5200 people into a meeting with a mayor or a councilman, but what we can do is bring the evidence that that issue has been discussed many times, that we have the information that it's been recorded but hasn't gotten a response, etc. We save the often repeated interventions of each person on the same subject and it allows everyone who defends the same interests to help raise the priority of those problems."
The Neighbors of Bethlehem have a website which serves as an extension of the Facebook group and where it is possible to consult all kinds of documentation about the parish, in an exercise of transparency that should be given to any Junta or Câmara. At this address webThe work Gonçalo does with great dedication and on a voluntary basis in the Neighbors of Bethlehem has already been praised by voices from the PS but also from the PSD at public times. "We talk to all parties"says, assuring that there are no political ambitions of his or of the group - only the will to contribute to the good of the parish and the city. And Gonçalo really talks to everyone - a WhatsApp here to the councilman, a call there with a council president, a meeting there with a local candidate. The passion for citizenship is what drives him.
"We talk to all parties."
In addition to Neighbors of Bethlehem, plus seven cores make up the association Vizinhos Em Lisboa (Neighbors in Lisbon), formally constituted in 2018 but with an informal life a few years earlier. There are collectives of Neighbors in the parishes of Areeiro (it was the first to emerge), Penha de França, Avenidas Novas, Alvalade, Alcântara, Estrela, and Misericórdia. Not all work in exactly the same way, but there is a sharing of the same citizenship values. The idea is simple: each parish can have its local citizenship movement and, if its values and activity model match those of the association, they can integrate it, saving on the bureaucratic problems of forming an association and benefiting at the same time from a networked conversation. "When we have contiguous parishes, we are able to organize much better with each other, both from a formal working point of view and from an informal point of view"points out Gonçalo.
These groups of Neighbors are relatively new to Lisbon. Although neighborhood associations have existed and continue to exist for decades, there is now a kind of updating of this concept, an adaptation to modern times. Gonçalo prefers to refer to the collectives of Neighbors like "citizenship movements"There is not the formality that an association usually has, with elections for management positions and assemblies among the members. This has advantages, such as the inexistence of a group bond - every day groups of Neighbors are welcoming new people and members have that freedom to be more or less present at each moment. "People will associate depending on the cause and what is under discussion"; therefore, the groups do not "are not a watertight thing" but something "in constant development".
But it also has disadvantages. If the collective that Gonçalo Matos helps manage on Facebook follows principles of tolerance and freedom, healthy in a democracy that wants to be participated by all people, others not so much - the environment between members and moderators favors the solidification of ideas closed in digital bubbles. These give users the illusion that they are right, that a majority agrees with you, or that the information they come across represents reality. In a more extreme scenario, individuals may begin to listen only to themselves, to place an unquestioning value on dominant sources, and to censor or disallow differing opinions - they are formed in this way, echo chamberswhere the member voices reverberate in a hollow envelope. Facebook groups are particularly conducive to these bubbles and echo chambers, fertile ground for the proliferation of populist philosophies - it depends on the hands that feed them.
The fault will not be exclusively human, because interfaces are designed and algorithms are thought to stimulate speed over depth, to lead to the scrollingto the commentary, to the like and the ira. The discussions that were supposed to be free and constructive end up giving way to polarized and divisive confrontations: pitting cyclists against car drivers, promoting discourses based on hate and polarization. In the same social network where the Neighbors from Belém, Areeiro or Avenidas Novas seek to build an open and informed citizenship, there are groups like Mobility with Freedom (380 members), the Lisbon Municipal Circus (1,400 members) or the Movement Against Traffic Changes (6,800 members) somewhat polluting the public, digital space where citizenship tries to flourish. In these communities facebook pagesMobility is the hot topic and bike paths are the scapegoat to criticize the current city government led by Fernando Medina (PS) and the Parish Councils (mostly PS). Slogans like "Merdina Rua" or "Ele Não" are running through the comment boxes, where people seem more committed to assert their views than to learn something new, to challenge their own views and to adopt a constructive attitude that makes them evolve as human beings and citizens. There is a clear agenda.
"Neighbors are few and we are going for themes that are transversal to the parish"
To Luís Castro55 years old, Facebook is "only a communication tool, not the place for discussion". Luis started the core Neighbors of Arroios in mid-2016, challenged by Rui Martins who at the time was starting, in the next parish, Areeiro, also a group of neighbors - after a failed attempt to found the Areeiro Residents' Association (AMA). "I accepted and said right away that I don't mess around. When I get involved, I get seriously involved. It's my time." The Neighbors of Arroios were once a nucleus of the association Vizinhos Em Lisboa, but due to disagreements with their way of doing citizenship, they decided last year form your own association. In a parish with a population of about 30 thousand people, one of the largest in the city, and with a rich cultural diversity, it is also a parish with countless problems. "Neighbors are few and we are going for themes that cut across the parish."
Luís seems to know well the streets and corners of Arroios, its weaknesses and virtues. He has always lived there. On his cell phone, WhatsApp and e-mail, he receives complaints from residents, which he forwards to the parish council, directly to the president, with whom he says he has a good relationship. On the same day or in a short period of time, he receives an indication that it has been resolved - often through an exchange of photos via WhatsApp. "For me my greatest enjoyment is this"he emphasizes, adding that he gives his time to the parish for the collective good, not to satisfy some self-interest. "What the citizenry has to do is complain. Because doing the job well is the obligation of those who are there. We don't have to pat ourselves on the back., understands. "The biggest recognition is on election day. Until then we have to be very critical and demanding. You promised to do this and you didn't do it, why? You talk about mobility, why are the sidewalks potholed?"
It was a bicycle path, however, that pushed the Neighbors of Arroios to the spotlight. The visibility of the bicycle in the city's political and mobility agenda has stirred social media, debates in the City Assembly and in public town hall meetings, and provoked intense polarization between cyclists, who claim their right to public space, and motorists, who seek to safeguard moral rights acquired over the past decades. Groups such as Mobility With Freedom or the Movement Against Traffic Changes have contributed to this polarization, hatred and misinformation. By 2020, Lisbon saw its number of bike lanes grow significantly - more than 20 km of bicycles were added to the network that now has 125.8 km; it was the largest annual growth since the last municipal elections in 2017. On the table continues an apparent strategy of a more inclusive city and the promise of 200 km by the end of this year. Lisbon is on its way, with about 150 km built or under construction at the moment.
The Almirante Reis bike path was one of the new ones built last year. It was built with paint and bollards in a few days, at the expense of an uphill traffic lane, at a time when Lisbon, like other cities worldwide, took advantage of the pandemic context to rethink the public space with tactical and quick-to-apply solutions in order to expand pedestrian and cycling space. Cyclists were grateful for the bike lane, as they now had a segregated corridor on an avenue they already used and which better connects downtown to the city center. There were red hearts drawn on the sidewalk and a collective mobilization to ride the infrastructure from one end to the other in critical mass. Manual counts performed by researchers from Instituto Superior Técnico revealed a growth of 140% in bicycle use on that avenue, accompanying a 25% increase in the city as a whole.
Luís Castro has also been doing his counts at Almirante ReisHe takes a little notebook with him where he keeps track of the people who pass by on bicycles, if they are male or female, if they are relay or not, if they were riding at high speed or on the sidewalk. Almirante Reis went to the Neighbors of Arroios one of those transversal themes. In the very first days of the bike path, they started sharing videos and photos in their Facebook group and page, denouncing what they said was a chaos in traffic (and, in fact, at rush hours, as the images illustrated, lines of cars stretched along an apparently empty bike path). This content quickly began to circulate on social networks: from 'pro-automobile' groups like Mobility With Freedom or the Movement Against Traffic Changesto 'pro-bicycle' groups, such as The bicycle as a means of transportation (10,300 members), Critical Mass Lisbon (9.5 thousand members) and Urban Cycling in Portugal (9,000 members) - conversations become polarized and there seems to be no room for middle ground.
The Neighbors circulated a petition, which obtained 1148 signatures and was eventually discussed in the Municipal Assembly in an online session in January 2021, along with two other more general petitions about the municipality's cycling policy: one for "immediate halt to rampant bicycling" and another to "support increased pedestrian space and cycling network". But the petition of the Neighbors of Arroios asked only "a better bike path" to Almirante ReisThey argued that the configuration chosen by the municipality damaged traffic and aggravated pollution, did not benefit local commerce, nor the quality of life for residents, and was unsafe for the cyclists themselves. Luís Castro and the others Neighbors not only wanted a different bike path, one that would safeguard "the interests of the resident and non-resident population in terms of mobility, quality of life and access to work or commercial activity"as they claimed that "any alteration or limitation of access to the road network" was the "product of broad consensus and citizen participation"according to the text of the petition.
Before the petition, the Neighbors had promoted a survey in the parish. The process will be common whenever they want to evaluate the majority opinion of the people of Arroios, as Luís explains: "Of the 223 streets that exist in the parish - 261 if you count the alleys and working class villages - we draw 80% in a lottery and make an itinerary through those streets. We try to collect 400 signatures or responses."depending on what is at issue: a petition, a poll, an inquiry, or a simple question, as was the case with the bicycle path. "Before we did the petition, we wanted to know what people thought about the bike path and 95% said they didn't agree. When you have about 400 people responding to this, you get a sense of what the will of the parish is." Luís does everything on paper because he believes it is more reliable than online, where there is a greater chance of adulterated answers and petitions with more than one signature from the same person. Right now they are preparing a poll to find out voting intentions for the next elections. Luís is worried about the rise of Chega in the next local elections. "In a parish like Arroios, three Chega elected officials for the parish assembly would mean that you are not listening to the population, and that is dramatic"says Luís Castro, apprehensive.
For many, and in particular for those who use the bicycle as a means of transportation in the city, the controversy of the Neighbors of Arroios with the bike lane was the first contact with the collective. Many lament, on social networks, being blocked in the group, unable to interact with the complaints and give their opinion. Luís and the core, in general, are at the same time mocked as the "crazy guy from Arroios", discrediting the work that the core has been developing for several years. In addition to the paper surveys and polls, they promote meetings of neighbors weekly or fortnightly - at worst, monthly. They even went to the National Assembly. "They were never an apathetic group"says Gonçalo Matos. There are differences between the citizenship model applied by Neighbors of Bethlehem and other groups associated with Vizinhos Em Lisboa, and the one promoted by Luís, based on taking positions in relation to certain issues in the parish based on the aforementioned consultation of the people - is more closed, seeks less consensus or, at least, seeks consensus in a different way. Despite their differences, Gonçalo and Luís talk regularly, sit at the same coffee table, and Gonçalo has even accompanied Luís on bike counts at Almirante Reis - they agreed and arrived by bike. There is a mutual respect and they make jokes as a friendly provocation to each other.
"Social media is just for us to communicate our message. We are pragmatic."
Access to the group of Neighbors of Arroios is restricted to those who live or work in the parish, and to those who identify with the positions taken by the collective. Luís says that the Neighbors of Arroios do not claim to represent all people, and that other residents can start other groups, defending other causes or opposing positions on the same issues. The registration process begins with filling out a form and providing some data, including housing (because it is an important topic for the core MEL - Lisbon Living Movement). There is a validation of registration, the assignment of a code to access the Facebook group and also integration in one of 12 working groups, each corresponding to a cause, for example, mobility, urban hygiene or mobility. The groups have their own WhatsApp channel and use Jitsi (an "open source Zoom") to hold meetings. "These cores make proposals and then it's up to me as coordinator to go get allies and get things going." Luís has a few people who, in their area of expertise, help him here and there through a brief call or a small meeting. The biggest job of the Neighbors of Arroios will be behind the scenes, between whatsappsemails, meetings, and calls. "Social media is just for us to communicate our message. We are pragmatic."
Changing a City: Commitments and Dialogues
Changing a city is a balancing act. And because of this balance, in order not to make a dent in public opinion and to guarantee new mandates, there are projects that are left behind - this is the case of reconversion of the 2ª Circular into a greener boulevard integrated in the citywhich would have a tree-lined central corridor, sidewalks at some points and BUS lanes; or the ZER ABCThe ambitious project to substantially restrict traffic downtown, with effects on Almirante Reis and Avenida da Liberdade, was suspended with the pandemic as an excuse. The project for the Avenida da República also went ahead with changes, due to strong pressure from the moderatorsThey were concerned about what would be a major reduction in the parking supply of 300 parking spaces. In the end it was created a bidirectional bike lane only on one side of the avenue, instead of the two unidirectional, one on each side; in the end, only 60 parking spaces were lost on Saldanha square, and on the remaining avenue there was even a gain of seven spaces, with the option for longitudinal parking on the side without bike lane.
Opposition to the reconversion of public space, in general, happens whenever you mess with the automobile area. It's like that in Lisbon, it's like that in other cities. In Madrid, the project to restrict traffic in the central area of the city - Madrid Central -, which the left-wing coalition executive led by Manuela Carmen put in place in 2018, ended up being cancelled by the Popular Party, which came to the City Council this year. Also in Madrid, the current mayor, Martínez de Almeida, has already promised to cancel and return all the fines imposed by the plan, amounting to more than 36 million euros. What's more, he is going to cancel all the permits for the occupation of automobile parking by esplanades, the so-called parklets.
Changing a city is a balancing act. It takes political will, but it also takes the population to turn around. It takes time. The most important thing is to have a vision. "Lisbon may be the only European capital that does not have a mobility plan", throws Mário Alvescivil engineer, transport and mobility specialist, pedestrian mobility activist, member of MUBi - Association for Urban Mobility on Bicycles. Mário works with several European realities and knows the terrain well when it comes to walking and cycling. A mobility plan would describe a vision in which one imagines "with people the future, how we would like our city to be". This view, "which may even be utopian and optimistic"It allows us to trace a political path and define measures to get there, as if we were walking towards an endless horizon. "Then it also happens that the vision changes, in 10-15 years we might be approaching the vision you had and become even more ambitious." The vision, according to Mario, could be concretized in a mobility pact or plan, which could be created, "taking a year and so on"with the involvement of everyone - from the municipality to cyclist groups (such as MUBi), passing through parish councils, automobile associations (such as ACP) and cycling groups (such as MUBi). Neighborsfor example.
"This could be symbolic but if we all sign the document saying we want zero pollution or almost no pollution in the city, by increasing the number of parking lots or widening a boulevard, you would be contradicting a signed document"says Mário. "The vision is easy. Both MUBi and ACP, for example, may agree on the vision, but the measures to get there may not. But one could not go backwards. One could postpone measures - because there is no time horizon. But at least one could not go backwards. You wouldn't be able to put in another track now because that clearly contradicts the document you signed." "With this vision model" - contrary to the idea of 'predict and provide' in which, with mathematical models and calculations, increases in demand were predicted for a given time horizon (five years, for example) and new bypasses or viaducts were promised, "you control the future based on a utopian, optimistic vision, you do not project the future based on past experience, you are not always a slave to the past".
"In the 21st century, there are going to be radical and very difficult changes, which are going to really mess with people's lives. There has to be a lot more shared vision, a lot more participation, co-creation, with people."
Changing a city is a balancing act. But if the changes are worked out with those who live, work, or for some other reason spend time in the city, the process may end up being more accelerated and consensual. The various movements of Neighbors on social networks show that there are many people who, rather than being called every four years to choose a generic and perhaps superficial political proposal for the city, want to be part of the construction of that urban space, project by project. It's not that they didn't want to before, but the internet has allowed new spaces for meeting and discussion, and wider spaces. And it's not that only bike lanes deserve discussion, and a new parking lot or car access lane, for that matter, doesn't - people seem to want to understand what decisions are being made for their street, neighborhood, parish, city; they want to know the how, the why, the when; they want to have something to say. And that is very important. "In the 21st century, there are going to be radical and very difficult changes, which are going to really mess with people's lives. There has to be a lot more shared vision, a lot more participation, co-creation, with people."Mário Alves guarantees, leaving a practical example: put activists, users and technicians from the City Hall around maps to design the cycling network. This work of public participation takes time, it may take a year, two years.
One of the main arguments of the Neighbors of Arroios in relation to the Almirante Reis bicycle path was that they were not consulted about it - neither they nor the residents and merchants of the area. Overnight they began to see the markings and movements on the avenue, and in a short time a bike path appeared. The coordinator of the Neighbors of Arroios regrets that there was no debate. "Debates are done a priori. We were faced with a bike path, period. It was presented to us as a fait accompli." And he clarifies his position: "It's one thing to be against the Almirante Reis bike lane, it's another thing to be against all bike lanes, bicycles, or cyclists. That is a completely wrong idea. In Arroios, we already have I don't know how many kilometers of bike lanes, from shared to unshared, and we question a bike lane."
"It's one thing to be against the Almirante Reis bike lane, it's another to be against all bike lanes, bicycles or cyclists."
For democracy to work and for citizens to debate, it is essential that the projects for that square or street, be it a new bike path or a new garden, are public. It was only under pressure from the opposition that the municipality started to make the cycling network projects available and, even so, there is still a lot of information about the city that remains unpublished or is lost somewhere in the meandering of the City Council's, EMEL's, the City Council's websites..., the mayor's or councilors' social network profiles, or even public contracting platforms such as Base.gov. However, much documentation remains unpublished, such as the annual reports of the Instituto Superior Técnico on bicycle use in the city that we mentioned earlier. This type of information, transparent and accessible, is essential in a democracy that wants to be healthy, without populist movements and with citizen participation. It is also important for journalists to treat and scrutinize the city and for associations with their activist role. "I think politicians are also comfortable with this lack of documents, because if there was a document, a mobility plan, that said that the Almirante Reis bike path is going to be done by 2022, then MUBI, the rest of civil society and the opposition could monitor and demand compliance with the plan"points out Mário Alves.
The Almirante Reis bicycle path now has a "wide back" to all criticism of the city council's mobility strategy. The subject of bike paths has led political organizations to review their communication strategies. The Lisbon City Hall now talks about bicycles mostly on Twitter, where the content is usually more positively received, mainly by sharing from the so-called cycleactivists. Simultaneously, in some materials, the "Cyclable Lisbon" hat often used to advertise bicycle-related projects started to be replaced by the "Better Living Lisbon" seal. They started to use buzzwords like 'requalification of public space' or 'improvement of road safety' only to mention the construction of a bicycle path in the middle of the description of the interventions. Almost always, in fact, the creation of a specific cycling infrastructure is combined with the creation of new car parking spaces. Parish Councils have also started to present the projects in detail to the population; Lumiar, for example, promoted an online session to present and clarify the Alameda das Linhas de Torres bike path with the presence of the councilman and the architect responsible, and interventions from the parishioners. The projects are, however, presented as consummated, "which can end up demotivating people"Mário points out. The City Hall does not always go ahead with the bike paths defined in the plans it announces, because it knows that compromises are necessary and is aware of the sensitivity of the issue. On Avenida da Índia, for example, the planned bicycle path has not gone ahead because it did not risk messing with the car; the same is stalling the promised bicycle path on Avenida de Roma, an artery with two to three traffic lanes (depending on the section) in each direction but very populated and sensitive from the electoral point of view.
"Great care was taken to include in the coordination group people with various political sensibilities, never hiding them."
Changing a city is a balancing act. People seem willing to participate and politicians to listen. Rui Martins registers a "greater availability" on the part of the municipality to listen to the proposals organized by the Neighbors, "but not yet at ideal levels"On the side of the Parish Councils, he still doesn't feel so open. The group he coordinates, the Areeiro Neighborsis the oldest... and the original, so to speak. On Facebook, they are a community of 8.8 thousand members. Rui is one of the most participative and is constantly on the street, sharing everything from photographs of details of the parish to reports of problems to be solved. The Areeiro Neighbors began by being "just a Facebook group that was very focused on hyperlocal citizenship actions". It survived, just as it emerged in early 2016, the first accusations of being a "vehicle for an independent municipal movement"This is unfounded finger-pointing, because, says Rui, "there was enough care to include in the coordination group people with various political sensibilities, never hiding them, assuming them with transparency, but never campaigning for or against any political party". Rui Martins was, in 2017, number three for the PS in the list of substitutes in the candidacy led by the socialists with Livre and Cidadãos Por Lisboa; and Jorge Oliveira, also one of the central elements of the Areeiro Neighborshe was on the CDS-PP list (Coligação Nossa Lisboa). In other nuclei of Neighbors It is also possible to find several party connections among the coordinators. In the Avenidas Novas core group, Rui Barbosa has already been a candidate for the PSD. In Misericórdia, Nuno Vasconcellos is first on Carlos Moedas' coalition list (New Times); a list where Sandra Campos, coordinator of the Santa Maria Maior group, is also at number two and for the PSD. Madalena Natividade is now a candidate for the coalition New Times in the parish of Arroios; in Alvalade is Gustavo Ambrósio Formiga connected to the PS, in Estrela Paulo de Deus, also a PS. Only the Neighbors of Belém, Arroios and Beato have people with no political affiliation, either militants or lists.
"Political parties from the moment they start seeing that there are groups start trying to capture participation"says Luís Castro. "The one from Penha de França was one of the first to be captured". by parties, mentions. "I would say that 90% of the people who are in these groups are out of interest" but guarantees that his interest is purely in the parish - not least because, he believes, citizenship should be independent and autonomous, and is not compatible with politics. "All that's left is for the Left Bloc to invite me [for a list in the parish of Arroios]. Otherwise they invited me, everyone from Chega to PCP. It doesn't matter to me." Luís just wants to divide his time for citizenship, between Neighbors of Arroios and other associations it is a member of, as is the case of Transparency and Integrity or the Civic Front.
"These kinds of groups are very appetizing for political campaigns, especially by extremists and radicals"points out Rui Martins. For the coordinator of the Areeiro Neighborsit was important to set strict rules for what you can post and comment on, and to do active moderation; only then will the Areeiro Neighbors have managed to maintain over these five years a "level of urbanity and usefulness within unusually high levels for these types of Facebook groups". From Facebook, the Areeiro Neighbors took the leap out of the virtual world early on, making their presence felt in public town hall meetings, municipal assemblies and parish assemblies, promoting petitions online and through local commerce - "a method that the Areeiro Parish Council itself would imitate in 2020" -, and requesting private meetings with city staff, city councilors, and city deputies. "The cores have never acted in a logic of anti-party or anti-power party: so over the years we have tried to balance criticism with praise, complaint with proposal, good with bad"says Rui Martins. The 'mod operandis' of the Areeiro Neighbors is not very different from those in Belém because the philosophy is the same: to bring together concerned citizens, make information accessible, stimulate debate, and promote a dialogue with local government.
Even without the seal of the association Vizinhos Em Lisboa - or branding 'Neighbors of'-, there are those who like to keep an eye on what is going on around them and who do so with gusto. This is the case of A Look at Telheirasa Facebook page with about 700 followers that proposes to "look" at the neighborhood divided between two parishes, Lumiar and Carnide. "Not only do we want to show what our neighborhood looks like, but we want to take care of it." Two Marias, two 60-year-old architects, residents of the neighborhood, are in charge of the page "since almost its inception"with a younger inhabitant. "As architects, we like to show people how you can design a neighborhood where residents enjoy living. We try to show the positive aspects, the neighborhood life, with gardens, vegetable gardens, schools, commerce, terraces and houses.", but the motivation for creating the page in September 2019 was different. "The page came about because the neighborhood of Telheiras began to be increasingly dirty and 'abandoned' by the Junta de Freguesia [from Lumiar]. I began to realize that if I posted pictures on my personal page, a few days later the problem would be solved, in addition to being contacted by the President."says one of the Marias. "At one point, on my personal profile, it was just pictures of trash and my friends started protesting." The civic role of the A Look at Telheiras is, however, exhausted in the showing. "We do not intend to be a spokesperson for these problems with the competent authorities, leaving this role to ART [Telheiras Residents Association]"with which they are collaborating. "I would like to see more collaboration from the residents who follow the page, sending photos and sharing experiences, but so far this has been practically non-existent. I believe that if the residents mobilized, especially the younger ones, the neighborhood would have another dynamic and the entities would feel more pressured."
The Lx Citizenship Forum is one of the oldest civic communities in the city - a movement "which is destined to applaud, boo, accuse, propose and dissertate about everything good and bad that happens in our capital, having as its only concern a Lisbon by the Lisboans and for the Lisboans".according to its own description. In addition to a blog with an archive starting in 2004, where even today problems of the city sent by citizens are published, there is a Facebook group that makes this process easier and more immediate. The Neighbors of Arroios also trying to pull in the parishes where the association Vizinhos Em Lisboa has no presence, having taken the initiative to create groups and Facebook pages for each of them. The idea was to pre-book the discussion spaces and start gathering an audience. Still, the expressiveness of these groups in number of members; the publications are in equally reduced volumes, some are repeated among the different groups and are often de-contextualized from the parish (for example, with a bicycle path in Avenidas Novas being discussed in Lumiar or Beato).
Participate in the city
Facebook groups allow, in theory, a more participative citizenship, the discussion of the problems of the parish and the mobilization of groups of people in order to solve these situations. These communities can also have an educational role: people "they do not know the competencies of each of the institutions, nor do they know how to identify the authority of each one"In the same way, what powers does the Municipal Assembly have over the City Council or the latter over any Parish Council, points out the coordinator of the Neighbors of Bethlehem. "Few citizens are aware of the participation tools available to them, and even fewer understand the difference between speaking at a public town hall meeting or a plenary of the Municipal Assembly, for example." Rui Martins agrees: "The confusing division of powers between Boards and Council has always been one of our favorite keys."
The Lisbon City Council meetings, every Tuesday, are open to the public and broadcast live online, with prior registration. This body is composed of municipal deputies, elected in the municipal elections by the citizens, and responsible for overseeing the executive work of the City Council, which the citizens also elect. Usually the majority party in the Assembly is the party that governs the municipality, but it doesn't have to be this way. The Lisbon City Council holds public meetings once a month (also broadcast live), to which the population also has access. Then there are the Parish Assemblies and the composition of each Parish Council, the model is similar to the municipal one, both from the point of view of election and public participation - except for the public meetings, which are an initiative of the municipality, not foreseen in the local government legislation.
Despite these instruments, Carlos Moedas, candidate for the PSD and CDS in Lisbon and the main opponent to Medina in the next elections, has a proposal for a Citizens' Assembly. In an interview, Moedas points out that corruption can be fought "with more transparency and with people's participation" and advances the idea of creating a permanent citizens' assembly, because, he argues, "in the future of democracy we will have to stop having politicians only as intermediaries, but also as co-creators of policies with the people". "The biggest criticism that I hear in Lisbon is that people don't participate. We have to have people's participation and we have to have transparency, and that transparency is very important for any process. When people don't feel included, that's terrible for the management of the city council itself."
What Moedas advocates is not new. The citizens' assemblies were invented in Greece, they were called Ecclesias - popular assemblies, open to all male citizens over the age of twenty-one who had served at least two years in the military and were the son of a natural father and mother of polis (city). France has been recovering this idea, as reported in The Guardian newspaper. Emmanuel Macron, the French President held a nationwide citizens' assembly, randomly selecting 150 ordinary people over the age of 16 and from different backgrounds to discuss climate. The meeting ended with Macron committing an additional 15 billion euros to the climate crisis and accepting 146 of the 149 recommendations left by the group, putting them to a referendum this year. This nationwide experiment can be seen in part as a response to the populist crisis of the yellow vests and aligns with others held regionally, for example in the Occitane region, which covers cities such as Toulouse, Montpellier and Carcassonne. "It was the closest I've ever been in my life to political power. In a way, it gave me hope in the dynamics of democracy."commented Clarisse Pintat, a chef 31-year-old French-Brazilian from Toulouse.
In Lisbon there is an assembly not of citizens, but of citizen-cyclists. Behind closed doors, it is held once a month, with no fixed date, now by videoconference given the current pandemic circumstances. It wasn't until April of last year that they became regular. "Before that, there had been one or two in a face-to-face fashion, but without being regular. The first one was in April 2019."Rosa Félix, who regularly participates in these meetings, tells us. Rosa is a researcher at the Instituto Superior Técnico, one of the authors of annual work on the use of bicycles in Lisbon, commissioned by the City CouncilHe is also an activist for cycling mobility with the association Cicloda. "The meetings are a time to hear from cyclists' associations and informal groups, their concerns, and let them know the answers that are prepared for the city firsthand."
"We are invited to the meetings, but on the condition of silence."
The participants are selected by the municipality, and are usually the same from session to session; among them are some of the best known cyclists in the community and members of associations. "In my opinion, it's important that these forums happen for both parties. For the Lisbon City Hall because it creates supporters of the measures right away, giving time for the associations (or people more active in the networks) to have an immediate position on things that are going to happen - and usually support or know in detail why some options, helping in the public discussion. For the associations and groups, because they've been complaining for years that decisions are made without discussion - and so they create this space where there really can be those discussions and suggestions for change still away from the formal public eye."
Mário Alves has a different understanding. Criticizes the fact that the activists who participate in the meetings "chosen without any kind of criteria and transparency"for example, and says that "MUBi was already asking for a monitoring commission" for active mobility issues, understanding that such a committee "it should be expanded, with a little protocol saying who the people who participate are" and that participation should be much more open and beyond bicycle activists. "It should have for example pedestrian representatives, journalists, representatives of parish councils..." Pedestrian activism is less than bicycle activism because cyclists "have a political identity, because they are few. In almost all European cities they represent less than 10%. In Portuguese cities they are 0.5%, 1%, 2%. The bicycle is also a charismatic tool. It gives you wings, almost. It is a highly powerful mechanical system and those who ride it are in love, they don't want anything else. And cyclists also bring that passion to activism."adds Mário Alves. "Walking concerns 100% of people. That's positive in electoral terms, but it's negative in terms of activism. Pedestrians have no political identity, nor do they know they are pedestrians."
The informality of these meetings means that there are no written minutes, "a terrible thing" because what has been said can be contradicted after a few months; and what is discussed cannot come out either. "MUBI has members and the members should know what's going on in the meetings, that this and that is going to happen in town, that we agree with this but not that. We are invited to the meetings, but on the condition of silence."Mário Alves points out. The meetings are attended by the mobility councilman, Miguel Gaspar, but Fernando Medina has already participated twice, "which is a sign of enormous availability of time and resources to make these soundings happen", points out Rosa Félix "Sometimes there are points for the presentation of a new bike path, for example, and then the opinions of the various stakeholders are heard and the Chamber adapts its plans or not. Most of the time that's what it is: the City wants to hear our opinions before moving forward with something."he says. "Other times there is no topic on the table and the opportunity is taken to hear from stakeholders about some specific case, for example, why there are no bicycle parking lots in a certain parish, the closing of a street to traffic, the right angle of a given bike lane, the traffic light that is not well programmed, or the tree that makes it difficult to see from a certain angle."
In Portland, in the United States of America, there is a similar initiative, but with a different opening. It is called Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) and is held monthly - on the second Tuesday of each month -, the meeting serves to discuss projects of interest to cyclists and their problems, allowing for a close dialogue with the Portland City Council. Unlike the Lisbon sessions, Portland's 'bike committee' is open to any citizen, who can register through a website if they wish to participate. Lisboa Para Pessoas contacted the Lisbon City Council, which did not respond at the time of publication of this report
The internet can revolutionize citizenship, but to increase public participation it is also essential to simplify the processes so that people are not discouraged by what they have to fill out or send. "Neighborhood associations as we know them are no longer able to respond to the speed with which ideas and problems arise on a daily basis. So, in a way, they are no longer effective engines of citizenship."says Gonçalo. "The Neighbors exist to stimulate, question, and assist local authorities. We are the first to advocate that municipalities have to adapt to a new reality and a new pace. Today's world operates in real time, and too often municipalities are formatted for 'slow time'."
O CONSUL is a free, open, digital tool, whose code any person or entity can download to create their own public participation platform. It is used in several cities worldwide, including several Spanish cities, as is the case of the capital, whose municipality launched the Decide Madrid with this software. On this platform, the people of Madrid can launch proposals for their city and discuss them with their neighbors. neighborsIt is a kind of forum. There is voting promoted by the municipality and it is also here that the participatory budget is held. An alternative to CONSUL, also open and free, is the Decidimwhich was created in Barcelona and is used by local authority in a strategy similar to Madrid's.
Lisbon has taken positive steps. It was the first municipality in the country to create a Participatory Budgetingby setting aside a sum of money and getting the population to participate by directly submitting ideas for the city and/or voting on those ideas. In the 2021 edition, several projects on cycling mobility and new uses of public space were in competition. Despite valid criticism in relation to the delay in the execution of several of the winning projects, the adhesion of people to this instrument is still remarkable: this year 251 proposals were received, still almost half of the applications from the previous year (539). In this edition of the Participatory Budget, the municipality has an overall budget of 2.5 million euros to fund the winning projects, those that after the internal selection process have been validated.
Citizens also have access to the application On My Streetwhich allows situations that need to be rectified in the city to be reported via cell phone, photos and descriptions. The reports are processed by a computer system centralized by the City and Parish Councils, in which everything is categorized to be solved. "A total paving can take ages because it takes contracting. If it's a light bulb, they're putting together steps to optimize resources."says Gonçalo, who calls himself a user of the application. My Street will be redesigned from the backend like frontend to address the many difficulties the application currently has, and it is hoped that the problems can be solved more quickly. "This investment decision only happens because it proves that that application makes perfect sense in the city and its operation is indispensable. This civic work also counts, this work of insisting that the tools work is a good thing."
"Public discussion processes like the Martim Moniz, Tapada das Necessidades and Alto do Restelo subdivisions are good examples of how the City Council has risen to the challenges that comprehensive participatory processes like these projects entail."
On the city council's website it is also possible to participate in the process of deciding the future of Martim Moniz Square. After a first process with little participation, which culminated in the cancellation of the renovation projects of the square due to strong pressure from the population, the City Hall is now seeking a greater and better understanding with the community through an open process of listening to ideas and receiving drawings. You can participate in this discussion through the municipality's citizenship websitewhere other projects for the city are published. One of them, also controversial, is that of Tapada das Necessidades. A petition of the Friends of this green space, which at the end of March gathered eight thousand signatures, has now gathered almost 12 thousand, forcing the municipality to clarify the project planned for there (which was not public) and prepare a "Plan for the Safeguarding of Tapada das Necessidades", putting it up for discussion by everyone before any construction work goes ahead. "Public discussion processes like the Martim Moniz, Tapada das Necessidades, and Alto do Restelo subdivisions are good examples of how the Câmara was up to the challenges that comprehensive participatory processes like these projects entail. However, none of these processes came from the City Hall initially. They were only possible because of the demands of the mobilized citizenry"concludes Gonçalo Matos.
The subdivisions of Alto do Restelo were one of the most recent polemics in the borough of Belém and the citizenship work of the Neighbors of BethlehemThe new buildings, commonly known as "Restelo towers", will be less tall, solving one of the first criticisms, but there is also a reinforcement of social and public utility equipment in the parish. But Gonçalo and Neighbors are still not rested and promise to continue exerting their constructive pressure for the improvement of this urbanistic project.
Article updated on 07/27/2021 with some corrections.
