In Arroios, many of the businesses that had created terraces in parking spaces during covid are getting letters from the Arroios Parish Council instructing them to permanently remove them by the end of the year. At least 49 businesses in the parish received the same letter.
Ricardo Cunha is one of them. He is the owner of Cafetaria da Esquina on Dona Estefânia Street. In this stretch of the street, ten terrace chairs will be occupied by a single car.
The reaction to the ultimatum was swift: a petition against the decision fills four A4 pages from top to bottom, front and back. In addition to the paper petition, an online public petition has been circulated, gathering 2,508 signatures.
The so-called “covid terraces” were granted licenses on an extraordinary basis to allow various small businesses to remain open, mitigating infection risks, with outdoor tables and chairs, exempting them from fees for occupying public space, and with simplified licensing.
Two years after the pandemic, many of these terraces still exist, as does the conflict that has erupted in some areas of the city between parking spaces and terraces.
Those advocating for the end of terraces do the math in terms of parking spaces, while café and restaurant owners calculate in terms of business volume. Urbanists applaud the occupation of public space for purposes other than car parking, considering urban well-being.
365 terraces were created in parking spaces in the pandemic. In Arroios, they occupied only 0.71% of the total parking spaces (both metered and resident spaces). Nevertheless, they are set to be removed.
Ricardo knew the license was only temporary, but he thought he could pay for the use of the space and keep it – it would be aroun €3,000 per year. And that is what he is going to pay moving the terrace to the sidewalk, which Ricardo did not want to occupy, knowing that he was taking away space from pedestrians.
The Arroios Parish Council did not respond to any of the attempts at contact by Mensagem to provide a better explanation of the situation.
In Santo António the story repeats itself
In Santo António the same choice was made. 39 letters have reportedly been distributed since March, instructing merchants to remove their terraces.
In Santo António, the terraces occupy only 1.07% of the parish’s parking spaces, both metered and resident. The measure brings back 80 parking spaces.
Marcelo Leite, the manager of Zazah Restaurant on São Marçal Street, received a letter in March demanding the removal of his terrace.
He reacted. The restaurant management sent a formal objection to the Parish Council, listing the following reasons to retain the terrace license permanently:
- The terrace represents a 20% increase in the restaurant’s capacity, allowing for a doubling of staff.
- The terrace enhances the visibility of the restaurant, located in a basement.
- There was a €2,000 investment in February 2023 in terrace furniture.
- The terrace enables accessibility for people with disabilities, which is not possible inside as it is located in the basement of a building from the year 1600.
- The possibility of allowing companion animals on the terrace.
- The restaurant owns the property and does not use the right to a parking permit for cars, as they already utilize the terrace.
Despite the effort, no effect. The Parish Council, led by Vasco Morgado, responded with a letter setting October 1 as the deadline to remove the terrace – the expiration date of the license, which was not renewed.
“What sense does this make? It’s very sad. I think there was a lack of study on the impact it would have in terms of the quality of life for people living here.”
Marcelo Leite, supervisor of Zazah
Zazah removed the terrace on the last day of September, resulting in the lay off of three employees. The restaurant capacity was boosted by over 20% with the terrace.
Vasco Morgado explains the reasons that prompted the sending of the letters. The primary reasons cited are related to parking concerns for the residents and visitors of the parish.
“The terraces in the parish and the city of Lisbon were authorized on a provisional basis during the Covid-19 period. They knew that the day would come when they would have to leave. Today, there is no longer the public health need to reduce the number of people inside restaurants, so we can return to the way it was, with residents having a few more parking spaces for their cars.”
Terrace licenses, initially scheduled to expire in March, were extended until the end of the year considering the potential profits associated with the World Youth Days. Now, the president of the Parish Council’s priority are the residents of the parish. This is not just about parking but also because, according to Vasco Morgado, residents are affected by the noise from the terraces. He gives the example of Monte Olivete Street (parallel to Zazah Street and perpendicular to Escola Politécnica Street), where the terrace noise reverberates several floors up, causing disturbance to residents.
In the case of Monte Olivete Street, where three terraces will be converted into three parking spaces, “ultimately, more than three spaces would be needed to meet the parking needs on that street”, analyzes João de Abreu e Silva, an engineer and professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico, specializing in urban planning and transportation.
“It improves the problem in a marginal way. It’s all a matter of strategy about what one wants for certain areas of the city. The more ease is given to the automobile, the more people will use it.”
Removing the terrace? “I didn’t know. What now?”
Not everyone seems to be prepared for the upcoming changes in these parishes. At Café Pequeno, in Monte Olivete, Iraman Carlier, one of the partners, didn’t know anything about the new rule. They are still waiting for a response to the licensing request.
Vasco Morgado warns that if the merchants do not free up the parking space, the Parish Council will take care of removing whatever is there, and the costs will be charged to the ‘offenders’—paying hourly for the work of the employees and for the square meters they occupy in storage.
What about the other parishes?
In Misericórdia, no more terraces in parking spaces are being licensed. By April 1, 2022, all provisional terraces had already been removed. “This parish council, by the decision of the Executive, does not grant terrace licenses in locations that eliminate parking spaces. This executive decision is related to the scarcity of exclusive resident parking in the parish, which greatly harms our residents”.
But in Penha de França there are still 28 active out of the 31 authorized terraces in 2020. This was the third in the municipality with the most terraces in parking spaces. According to a statement sent to the newspaper Público, the Parish Council confirms that it will not request the removal of the terraces because “it is considered to promote job retention and responds to the demand for terraces as a leisure space.”
There is a struggle between the Parishes and the Lisbon City Council on who is in charge of this decision. The municipaity says it’s the parishes. But it adds: “to occupy parking spaces (…), licensing is the responsibility of the Mobility Directorate of the Lisbon City Council.” Licensing is the responsibility of the City Council, and removal is the responsibility of the Parish Councils, says the City Council.
Ajuda aims to keep the “covid-terraces” but shifts part of the responsibility to the municipality. “We want to maintain existing terraces, as we see them as an improvement in urban dynamics. Their quantity is limited due to their compliance from the beginning, supported by a resolution that regulates their use. We believe they are a positive resource for the local economy and urban vitality, provided there is agreement between owners and the Lisbon City Council.”
In São Domingos de Benfica, President José da Câmara mentions that some cases need to be evaluated: “Two or three restaurants have limited interior space and cannot survive without the terrace. In these cases, I will appeal to the Lisbon City Council (CML) to let them continue. But, as I mentioned, it is not a competence of the São Domingos de Benfica Parish Council”.
However, the Lisbon City Council itself states that the decision for removal is not in their hands. “The decision is made by the parish councils”, emphasizes the City Council.
More seating space or more parking: what kind of city do we want?
Rita Castel’Branco is one of the organizers of the petition for Cafetaria da Esquina. She is also a resident of the Arroios parish and a mobility expert.
She invokes a quote from Fred Kent, a well-known landscape architect:
“If we plan cities for cars and traffic, we get cars and traffic. If we plan for people and public space, we have people and public space.”
To explain that by promoting these local gathering places, what we are fostering is a stronger sense of neighbourhood life. “It is here [in cafes] that neighbours get to know each other, where they sit, meet, and have a chat. Saying ‘good morning’ to the neighbour while he walks the dog… these informal contacts may seem insignificant, even superfluous, but they impact our quality of life and the trust we have in the neighbourhoods where we live.”
The argument of the “right to a parking space” has been used to justify the removal of these terraces, but Rita deconstructs it:
“Why should they have the right to have a parking space at their doorstep? And what about those without a car? Do they have the right to perhaps have the same square meters and plant a garden? And why should a resident have ten square meters of public space for free? Public space belongs to all of us. Is having a car parked, perhaps all day, more noble than having a terrace? Is that more economically interesting for the city than a terrace or any other use? Having parking, much less for free, is not a constitutional right. It’s something we’ve gotten used to thinking we can have, but there’s no reason for it to be free, indeed.”
Rita Castel’Branco is referring to the free or subsidized cost that residents often enjoy when obtaining a permit for the first car.
She says that these measures will end up encouraging more car use. This is already happening in Lisbon: there are now more cars circulating in the city than there were before the pandemic. Look at the numbers:
In Toronto, Canada, studies have shown that having terraces in parking spaces is more profitable than having cars.
During the summer of 2021, in thirteen weeks of study, residents spent 181 million dollars on terraces. If, during the same period, these spaces were occupied by cars, the revenue would be only 3.7 million dollars, making it 49 times less profitable.
*Updated at 12:00 on December 28 with a response from the Misericórdia Parish Council.
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