The Junta de Freguesia de Arroios ordered the closure of 38 "esplanades-Covid" due to alleged noise complaints, going against a promise made at the end of last year to analyze each case on a case-by-case basis. Traders were concerned and mobilized on social media. The result was one of the most crowded Parish Assemblies in recent years, where the President of the Junta ended up admitting that it was a "political decision".
Back to The Journey of the Hoursin the "nameless square" in Arroios. The terrace that holds almost two dozen customers isn't set up today - it's just that, despite being a June afternoon, the weather is rainy. Maybe it's for the best. Ricardo Maneira, the owner of the establishment, which has been in existence for three years, has his mind elsewhere; he's nervous, anxious, pacing around and says he's already had to take a tranquilizer. It's Parish Assembly time later.
Ricardo and other traders were surprised this week by a letter from the Arroios Parish Council. The municipality led by centrist Madalena Natividade has ordered the closure of 38 "Covid terraces", which occupied parking spaces and were created during the pandemic, giving the owners just five working days to remove the structures. According to the Junta de Freguesia, the decision is based on alleged noise complaints from residents. However, traders dispute this, saying that the terraces are not causing disturbing noise in the neighborhoods and criticize the lack of an individual assessment of each case - something that, at the end of last year, the Junta had promised it would do.
"I've never had a noise complaint in three years, at least as far as I know. The police have never come here"says Ricardo. "The owners are the first people to want the terraces to stay, so if someone is here making noise, I'm the first person to ask them to keep it down so as not to disturb my neighborhood. I want to have a great relationship with my neighborhood."
O The Journey of the Hours can sit down about 10 people inside, plus 18 outside, where it has two terraces, one on the sidewalk, duly legalized and paying an annual fee, and the other in a parking space ("18 seats is a lot of room. That's more than half the seats I have"). The latter was authorized, along with 60 other terraces in the parish of Arroios, during the Covid-19 pandemic - it was a temporary measure, inspired by other European cities and financed by the Lisbon City Council, to promote commerce at a time when there were limitations on the number of people who could stay indoors.
But the pandemic has passed and some parish councils have taken action to recover the parking spaces that had been occupied by this street furniture. The parish of Santo António, led by the PSD, decided at the end of last year to end all licenses for terraces in car parking spaceswith the argument that it needed to give these places back to the residents. The PS Misericórdia parish council had already put an end to the so-called "Covid terraces". Penha de França and Ajuda decided to extend the licenses.
At the time, the Arroios council also wanted to put an end to the "Covid terrace" licenses that still existed in the parish and warned the owners of this decision, dgiving them until the end of 2023 to either remove their "Covid terraces" or apply for a license for these structures.. Ricardo Maneira submitted this request and says that, despite several contacts with the council's services, he has never received a reply; he claims that when he calls to find out about the status of the license, he is told that they have no knowledge of any decision. That's why the letter he received ordering the removal of the 38 "Covid terraces" that still exist in the parish of Arroios came as a surprise to him - and to the other traders.
Junta claims noise problems but doesn't quantify
"We've been left in perpetuity because the council says there are noise complaints. But if there are complaints, then show which ones, where and how many. And if there are complaints in certain places, the problem should be solved there, case by case. There are rules for noise"he argues. Ricardo is disappointed that he was promised an individual analysis of the terrace situation, but the communication he received suggests that there was a general decision.
The owner ofThe Journey of the Hours wants to pay for the terrace that occupies the parking space - as it already pays for the one that occupies the sidewalk - and doesn't mind closing early, if that allows it to keep that space. "We close at midnight, even though we have a license from the Town Hall to close at two. I don't mind changing my hours or having different hours for the indoor and outdoor space." Ricardo still wonders: "What about the terraces on the sidewalk that don't make noise?"
Traders are warning of possible negative impacts, such as the reduction of social spaces and the loss of jobs. Ricardo has three people working with him, and he assigns at least one of these jobs to the esplanade. "The terrace has allowed me to hire at least one more person. And that person, obviously, if I have to do without the space, will be out of a job. I also don't know if the business will be sustainable with fewer seats. All this for a car"he argues. "The Mayor is from the CDS and, from what I remember, the CDS was the party of small and medium-sized businesses. Nothing she's doing represents what the CDS claims to stand for."
Perplexed and disgusted by the council's attitude, dozens of shopkeepers mobilized to take part in the Parish Assembly, which took place this Thursday evening at the Lisboa Ginásio Clube. It will have been the most well-attended session of the Parish Assembly in Arroios in the last 20 years - at least in the memory of José Manuel Gonçalves (PSD), the current President of the Assembly. More than 30 owners of bars, cafés and restaurants spoke in defense of their terraces, but friends and residents also spoke. The session began at 9 p.m. and ended just after midnight. As the time had passed, it was interrupted to continue on another day (July 10, also at 9 p.m., in the same place). The record turnout at this Parish Assembly was due to the mobilization that the issue of the esplanades gained on social networks.
Through Instagram, Ricardo Maneira was the first major driver of this grassroots movement, which later gained autonomy. "We thought we couldn't keep quiet this time"he says. Between posts, memes e storiesThe outcry was such that the Junta launched the the following statementon the eve of the Assembly session:
"As we all know, during the years of the pandemic, many restrictions were imposed on a wide range of professional, economic, social, political, sporting and recreational activities for public health reasons, which had a major impact on the lives of the Portuguese. Both the government and local authorities have taken a series of measures and initiatives to try to mitigate the negative financial impacts that have hit many economic activities, particularly in the tourism and catering sectors, for reasons that are well known.
In this context, the Arroios Parish Council authorized the temporary and free installation of 40 terraces that could mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on most tourism and catering activities. Later, sensitive to the operators' argument that the economic impact of the pandemic was still being felt, the council authorized and extended the period of use of the 40 temporary and free terraces until the end of 2023.
As early as 2023, we received several contacts and messages from residents complaining about the noise caused by the new terraces, often after closing time, with people staying there until the early hours of the morning. It's worth remembering that, back in October 2023, the 40 spaces that had benefited from free temporary terraces were notified to remove them by the end of that year. Some establishments complied with the Junta de Freguesia's resolution, but others kept the spaces open and functional.
With the growing number of complaints from residents, whose right to rest is permanently jeopardized by the presence of temporary terraces, the Arroios Parish Council can take no other decision than to demand that they be removed as soon as possible, as they have been in other Lisbon parishes.
It should be noted that all the traders knew that the new terraces were temporary and free of charge. The issue has nothing to do with any kind of payment, but the parish council cannot fail to demand due respect for the right to rest and quiet for its residents, which naturally takes precedence over the interests of those who have kept the terraces open, despite the fact that they are in an illegal situation."
- Arroios Parish Council
It was more or less this statement that the President of the Junta read out at the Parish Assembly session, after listening to all the traders' testimonies. An attitude that annoyed those present, who criticized Madalena Natividade for not answering people directly and instead reading out a pre-prepared response. Magdalene improvised only in some parts of her answer, to say that "the parking issue"mentioned by several people, "I don't think so" and that "This decision was taken to guarantee residents' right to rest. Nobody here is talking about parking spaces".
Traders gathered at the Parish Assembly
The arguments put forward by the traders were repeated throughout the speeches: that the terraces bring life to the neighborhoods, attract people to Arroios, contribute to the safety of those who walk the streets, and generate jobs; that noise is a problem that can be solved with case-by-case inspections but that they have no record of complaints; that the terraces on the sidewalk can also make noise; that the parking spaces reclaimed with the end of the terraces won't solve any problems at that level. "Instead of properly regulating the terraces, they are abolishing them, harming customers and businesses, without any kind of discernment. It's an easy way out. Are there abusive and badly built terraces? Yes. To do away with all of them is stupid. The terraces bring life to the neighborhood"said one of the traders present.
Adélaïde, who has lived in Arroios for seven years and owned a Portuguese wine shop for three, opened it during the pandemic and took the opportunity to ask for a terrace to be placed in front of her establishment at 43A Rua Maria. "This whole process was a surprise. What happened was that in December they wanted to remove the terrace, but we applied for a license as the council told us to do. But we didn't get an answer"says the ownerThe Pif. "The request had to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis by the City Council first and after they gave the favorable notice or not, it was the Junta's decision."
Like Ricardo, Angéline was surprised by the Junta's letter and also used social media to expose the situation to customers. "With the request I sent in December, I wrote a long text explaining why we wanted to keep the terrace and even proposing some solutions, such as closing early and paying to use the parking space. But they closed the dialog, no one responded"he laments. The terrace has space for 12 people, doubling the capacity of the space, which could close at two in the morning, according to the municipal license, but closes between 11 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. "We have no noise complaints, and the police also come here a lot at the weekend"says Adélaïde. "People who live here in these buildings are customers of our esplanade."
"Understand that it's a political decision"
Several people have asked the Mayor to quantify the noise complaints, but she has never answered this question. "You don't answer because you don't know, they don't exist"from someone in the audience. During the session, a resident spoke "tired" and therefore welcomed Madalena Natividade's decision; she said that "talking on the terrace at night is like talking in my bedroom" and that her son "often wakes up" to the noise from the street. "This can't be a fight between the residents, who have no voice, and those who have influence on social media. The residents' right to rest must be respected and must not take precedence over business"he pointed out.
In the same vein, Filipe Dias, from the association Neighbors of ArroiosHe argued that the residents he spoke to "are globally satisfied" with "promise" of the Parish Council to suspend the terraces that were created during the Covid pandemic. "This promise has already been made three times and we hope that the third time will be the charm"he said, noting that the noise problem in Arroios is "structural" because "most buildings have low levels of sound insulation, the streets are narrow and the buildings are tall, which causes noise to echo through the neighborhoods" and, on the other hand, "the rooms were built facing the street", adding to the problem.
Towards the end of the evening, and in the face of some pressure from those present and some tiredness, Madalena Natividade ended up admitting the real reason for the withdrawal of the terraces-Covid: "Understand that it's a political decision." She told the traders that they have the right to a prior hearing, so that they can contest the decision and defend themselves. The Mayor of Arroios didn't go back on her decision, disappointing the owners of the establishments who had expected her to reconsider the problems raised. The elected opposition in the Parish Assembly - PS, CDU, BE and PAN - also asked Madalena Natividade to re-evaluate the case.
According to the Junta de Arroios, there are 368 legal esplanades in the parish, occupying 3 100 m2 of public space; and of these 11 are in parking spacesThey were put up before the exceptional Covid period. These terraces will remain and will not be included in this decision. In the parish, there are 7,957 parking spaces regulated by EMEL, but 11,840 resident badges have been allocated, i.e. 49% more than there are spaces available. The "Covid terraces" that still exist have taken up at least 38 parking spaces.
No data was provided on noise complaints.
