Near the Arroios Market, there's a square that doesn't have a name but which has gained a different dynamic with the bars that have set up there. On one side is the parish of Penha de França, on the other is Arroios. On one side, the terraces can stay until December. On the other, the Junta wants them gone as soon as possible...
N'The Journey of the HoursRicardo Maneira has no rest. It's getting close to 5pm and he's about to welcome his first customers. He talks to us at the counter. "The Arroios Parish Council made a unilateral decision without talking to the people"he says. "I want a Junta that is here to help me and not against me." Ricardo's bar opened about a year ago and shortly afterwards he managed to license a terrace in the parking space opposite, freeing up space on the sidewalk, where sometimes the tables and chairs wouldn't allow a baby carriage to pass.
The Journey of the Hours brings together good food, good drink and good music. The walls of the small establishment are filled with wine and vinyls, and there are only four tables to seat customers. The terrace allows Ricardo to do more business, justify employing more people and bring more life to the neighborhood. "We also play a social role in bringing the neighborhood to life"He says that most of his customers are locals, from Arroios or Penha de França, who come to his bar on foot or by bicycle. But "we're talking about small businesses too"says Ricardo. "The Junta has to be here to help. With the Junta, we can find solutions that are viable for those who live here and for those who also have a business. It's a question of common sense"says Ricardo.
Esplanades were temporary
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed us home in March 2020, closing shops and restaurants; when we were able to go out, the terraces were a way for people to get back to socializing - because the virus was less transmitted outdoors - and for businesses a way to get back into business. With the sidewalks so often narrowed and a pandemic that made us rethink the space of citiesthe installation of terraces in parking spaces has become the most logical solution - in Lisbon, as part of the Lisbon Protectscreated to respond to the pandemic, there were as of last March at least 365 terraces authorized in parking spaces.
This figure may have been higher, as some establishments have since closed their terraces. On the other hand, of the 365 terraces counted in March, 68 were in the parish of Arroios, the city parish with the highest number of converted parking spaces. Only the parishes of Campo de Ourique, Carnide, Parque das Nações and Santa Clara had no terraces authorized under the municipal program.
Traders have benefited from financial support for the purchase of terrace furniture - up to 50% from the municipality - as well as exemptions from public space occupation fees, a benefit launched in 2020 and extended. by the end of 2021then until March 31st of this year and more recently until December 31st.
Now it's in the hands of the Parish Councils, under the powers granted to them by Lisbon City Council. The email that Ricardo and other Arroios shopkeepers received from the Parish Council, and to which Lisboa Para Pessoas had access, leaves no room for doubt: "(...) since the [esplanade] authorization was granted on a precarious, ephemeral and provisional basis, it expires on 30/09/2022. This means that, after this date, the terrace and all the street furniture and advertising supports associated with it must be removed from the parking space".
Between terraces and parking, Junta prefers parking
The Junta de Freguesia de Arroios has left traders no option but to remove the terrace. Contacted by PúblicoThe Junta states that its territory consists of "in a densely populated area of the city of Lisbon, which has numerous narrow streets and roads and where it is difficult for residents and workers to park on a daily basis"and that "there are no large parking lots that can provide alternatives to parking on public roads".
"The current Arroios executive has never made it known or made it clear to any business owners that the exceptional measures for occupying public space could somehow become permanent"According to the same newspaper, the Junta de Arroios intends to terminate the licenses of the 43 terraces that still remain in parking spaces in September. According to Público, there are another six terraces of the same kind that were previously licensed and will remain.
"Replacing a car with an esplanade, I think it's a beautiful thing. It makes the city more people-friendly"; and, at the same time, "By having the terrace here, I can employ two more people. If I don't, I probably won't need those two people." Ricardo Maneira doesn't understand: "How is it that the Lisbon City Council allows the terraces to last until December, but my parish council, out of an excess of zeal, wants to bring forward their removal?" And what if, after removing the terraces by order of the parish council - with all the costs that this entails - Ricardo receives information from the municipality that, after all, they can remain until the end of December?
The Journey of the Hours is in the "Nameless Square", so called informally because, in fact, it has no name. The small square is formed by the intersection of José Ricardo and Carvalho Araújo streets; on one side is the parish of Arroios, on the other is Penha de França. That's why Ricardo will have to take down his terrace in September, but Orlando's can stay until the end of the year. You see MaltaThe bar that Orlando Malta manages together with Sylvia Hink, a Dutch woman who has lived in Lisbon for the last three years, is on the Penha side and the parish council has already said it won't make any changes to the licenses before the end of the year.
"When we leave Lisbon for other capitals, we see more people on the streets. Lisbon is still very car-oriented"says Orlando."If it's the car businesses that queue for 5-10 minutes that we want, I don't think it's very productive. It gets in everyone's way. I think there's a lot more business if people can get around on foot or by bicycle."says Orlando. "Not least because we sell alcohol, and that's a disincentive" travel by own car.
Like his neighbor Ricardo, Orlando had always been aware that the measures would be temporary, but that the dialogue that had taken place pointed to "in the sense that this was something that was born under Lisboa Protege but that the dynamics of the city were moving in that direction" to take space away from the car. "Many people invested the money that was needed to create the conditions to grow their business" and, as Orlando points out, there has been support for 50%s "with public money" for the purchase of material for the esplanades. "It's public money that's being wasted, thrown away"says Ricardo.
"When you feel that support from the public institutions behind it, you don't think it's going to go backwards"says Orlando. "It's temporary now, but in the future it will turn into something where we can pay for the space. We wanted the chance to pay for what we're occupying on the road"as has been happening in Porto, for example, since the beginning of the year. Some traders in Arroios started a undersigned through the Public Petition platform in defense of the esplanades in the parish and the city. Among the 1,689 signatures are those of Ricardo and Orlando. Even though he won't be affected in the short term, the owner d'Malta - that was established in that square in December 2018 - fears that the vision of the Junta de Arroios is the same as that of the municipal executive and that "Give this back to EMEL and let's have parking again". "That's why I'm joining the Arroios movement, because what happens in Arroios after three months will also happen in Penha de França."
Público reports that the São Vicente council is also concerned about parking in the parish and will not extend the terraces, while the Santo António council wants to study each case to balance the interests of residents and traders. And, as reports CNN PortugalIn the parish of Misericórdia, the shopkeepers of Rua da Silva (better known as "Green Street") have been surprised in recent days by the return of cars to the street, which had been closed to traffic during the pandemic.
Finding a balance in the city
"This square had several problems, crime was one of them. Now the dynamics we're managing to promote in this square are bringing in another type of customer, another type of business"says Orlando. On the other side of the square, right next to theThe Journey of the HoursThis idea is corroborated by Adriana Araújo: "Between what it was before our establishments and what it is today, the change in people is blatant, the neighborhood has improved a lot, it's much better frequented." Adriana has a café specializing in cakes and snacks - she started making them at home during the pandemic and selling them online, but she says she found the right place for her. "right place" to establish the business and grow. They didn't have a terrace right from the start, when they opened in October 2020, but they say it did "quite a difference".
"The esplanade is what helped us keep going. More customers came, saw the terrace with the flowers and became curious. It attracts attention. And at the end of the day it's super cool [to be here]"he says. If you're left without her, "it's going to get in the way"says Adriana. "It's going to disrupt sales, there's going to be a car parked out front that's not going to help us at all, it's going to reduce the number of people. Two people will be out of work. The esplanades have created jobs"says the manager of the space. Adriana Araújo's terrace is painted with flowers all around and also has a flowered bicycle outside. The neighboring terraces also have some kind of decoration to help distract customers from the inhospitable square around them, which has no trees and is full of stationary cars. At the end of the day, when car engines are no longer heard so often, the voices of people talking overlap and the air becomes softer. There is life in the neighborhood.
"It's a square that's becoming more and more alive and has more and more people from the neighborhood. These terraces that we've managed to put on the road have brought people back to the street. If you lose the terraces, you lose that life too"Orlando d' points outMalta."In the past, without the terraces, only cars would stop. There was no movement in the square. There were no flowers"Adriana Araújo adds. "What city do we want, that's the question we have to ask ourselves. If we only want cars in the city, that's one thing. Now if we want people on the street living the city, living the neighborhood, that's the way to go, with terraces. It's a choice"says Ricardo, d'The Journey of the Hours.
The community of bars, cafés and restaurants that have set up in "Praça Sem Nome" reject problems with the neighborhood and say that they even close earlier (at midnight) than the permits allow (two in the morning) to give residents a break. "We've established a commitment here with the neighborhood. We do the business, but that time comes and they can rest"says Orlando. This isn't always the case and in residential areas there are those who take a dim view of the existence of terraces, arguing that they promote noise at night and jeopardize rest.
The balance is not always easy to strike and, in Arroios, it also interferes with the availability of parking for residents. In a densely populated parish, where buildings don't have garages, it's common to see vehicles occupying every square meter available, whether it's a sidewalk, a crosswalk or an intersection. "There are often six families living in a building, each family has two cars, there are 12 cars at the door in a space of six meters that allows for two cars"says Orlando. Sylvia, who came to Lisbon from Amsterdam, finds it confusing that there are so many cars in the city and says that the streets in the neighborhoods there have fewer parking spaces and more spaces for people to enjoy, be they playgrounds, dog parks or squares. "Alameda has a green space, but when you come into the neighborhood the green is lost. There's just parking and buildings. This square could be made more dynamic in that sense"Orlando, who along with his colleagues has dreamed of something greener in the middle of this "nameless square".
The end of Orlando, Ricardo and Adriana's terraces would mean an increase of only six or seven spaces in the area. In a parallel street, right next door, 27 parking spaces will be created as part of the project for the new bike lane on Avenida Almirante Reis which provides for the elimination of an existing BUS corridor. The traders we spoke to claimed that there had also been public investment in the creation of these terraces, argued that they had created jobs and were basically looking for certainty about the future of their businesses.
Quoted by Público, the Lisbon City Council says that until "at the end of this year, there will certainly be a reassessment of the situation and a decision accordingly" on the issue of temporarily licensed terraces in parking lots, and said it was necessary to "weighing up all the different interests of the city and taking care of and accommodating as far as possible the most penalizing effects of each activity". He believes that "the existence of new terraces and the promotion of open-air commerce" are "a positive trend for the economy and city life".
