Not exactly per these words, but with this content, the alert arrived last week at the Santo António Parish Council: “There is an open-top van parked on Rua Dom Pedro V, next to Bairro Alto, which is functioning as an improvised terrace.” Changing the usual function of an object, firstly, makes its use questionable: “I don’t know if it will be a terrace… It’s just a van, with an EMEL badge, in its parking space”, explains Vítor Hipólito, manager of Tapas Bar 52, in statements to Time Out. The idea came months after the end of the so-called “Covid terraces” in the parish of Santo António, when the person responsible decided to install a set of puffs and cushions in the open box of a van to receive customers. “We don’t do services there”, people are the ones who take their own consumables with them, explains the person responsible, believing that the action does not exceed the limits of the law. “Our interpretation is that they can take their own drinks there. I don’t consider it illegal, but we’ll see,” he says over the phone.
The idea will not, however, be original to Vítor Hipólito. The person responsible says that he was inspired by a similar case, seen in front of a restaurant near Largo do Carmo, and that, not seeing “any illegality” in the act, he decided to replicate it. “We have a merchant’s car, which we use to make distributions from the wine cellar [Imperial, do mesmo proprietário e na porta ao lado ao Tapas Bar 52], with the appropriate badge, which occupies the parking space to which it is entitled. Therefore, it’s just a van parked in its place”, he says, leaving the motto: “I’m sorry there isn’t more.”
Not being completely innocent, this was the way the person responsible found to try to “minimize the impact” of the end of temporary terrace licenses in spaces originally reserved for parking, which began during the pandemic and were extended until the end of last year. “We had a drop of around 30% in turnover [com o fim da esplanada] and we didn’t want to fire more people”, explains Vítor Hipólito, clarifying that the fact of trying to circumvent the law with a van where customers sit during the bar’s opening hours “is not a political message”, but “a way of calling the pay attention to the fact that terraces are a clear necessity in Lisbon.” “After Covid, people showed that they prefer to be outside”, he considers.
In the case of the parish of Santo António, where the commercial space in question is located, the decision to eliminate the “Covid terraces” was justified by the need to “protect” residents and counteract the chronic lack of parking in the area. “There are a lot of cars and we have to create a path to reduce them. But we can’t leave people without having a place to put them”, explained in December to Time Out Vasco Morgado, the president of that Parish Council, who is now indignant at the solution found by Vítor Hipólito to keep the business operating abroad. “It’s an abuse, typical chico-spertismo”, qualifies the mayor, stressing that the city “is not Disneyland, it’s still Lisbon”.
Vítor Hipólito, however, counter-argues, stating that, after the end of the “Covid terraces” in the parish, “seven new loading and unloading places” were created on the same street, Dom Pedro V, and are therefore not intended for residents. “If parking spaces were created, they certainly weren’t for residents. Every day, in fact, I see cars there being blocked by Emel, because there are so many loading and unloading spaces in a row, it’s so absurd, that people don’t even notice very good”. Regarding this aspect, Vasco Morgado recalls that the number of spaces reserved for loading and unloading “is established depending on the ratio of commercial spaces in the area” and that “both Bairro Alto, next door, and Rua Dom Pedro V itself are full of establishments”.
According to the president of the Santo António Parish Council, the case of the “non-terrace” in the pickup truck is under legal analysis.
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