A new war of the terraces looms over Barcelona. The City Council will reduce a good part of the watchmen that it allowed to expand during the pandemic. We speak mainly of those who were arranged in an extraordinary way on the sidewalks, in so many streets and squares of the city. Hundreds of tables and chairs – their number is still unknown – have a very cloudy horizon.
In order to alleviate the economic effects of the virus on a key sector of this city, the City Council granted 3,668 new terrace licenses last year. Of these, 1,588 were located in chamfers, traffic lanes, parking cords … The objective of the government of Mayor Ada Colau is to definitively consolidate especially those tables and chairs that it provisionally authorized to install there, on the roads, in the asphalt (actually all those that in a way are taking space away from the private vehicle). The municipal planning commission yesterday initially approved the modification of the terraces ordinance aimed at making it possible. The rest of the new tables and chairs, those installed on the sidewalks, will have to be regulated by the rules that governed before the pandemic was declared. This will mean, for example, that they will all have to group in front of the facade of the premises, and not happily disperse along the sidewalks, as has happened during the pandemic. In addition, the tables and chairs that remain on the sidewalk should be grouped with those that remain on the road. The City Council will study case by case. The screening will be produced early next year. His schedule is not yet clear. Many restaurateurs will not be amused … Never has a terrace been as important as it is now to carry out a business.
Many of these terraces eliminate parking spaces
In any case, the opposition’s support for the Colau executive in this matter is very fragile. All the groups assured that they will present many allegations, that everything is to be decided. this green light is very dim and does not guarantee final approval. ERC and JxCat abstained, and the groups that least usually support the executive in these matters – Cs, Bcn pel Canvi and PP – voted in favor. “The government opposes mobility and economy,” said Luz Guilarte, from Cs, and is blackmailing the restaurateurs. “
The municipal government wants to definitively consolidate the watchmen arranged on the road
Janet Sanz, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, underlined that by consolidating only the new terraces arranged on the asphalt, Barcelona will be a much more sustainable city, that citizens will enjoy a higher quality public space, that the sidewalks will be clearer …
And that this modification does not affect the fundamental criteria of the ordinance. Namely, that the tables and chairs planted on the sidewalk must guarantee the passage of neighbors as stipulated by the terrace ordinance approved by all political groups in 2018, the text that put an end to that first great war of the terraces.
And as restorers request the transformation of their extraordinary licenses into definitive ones and acquire the new approved models of terraces for around 6,000 euros, the Deputy Mayor continued, the City Council will gradually remove the New Jersey model yellow concrete barriers. that for more than a year have been wrapping Barcelona in the air of a city mired in an armed conflict. The municipal goal is for the last New Jersey to be fired in June 2022.
The support of Cs, Bcn pel Canvi and PP allows to initially approve the modification of the ordinance
But these explanations did not convince the main opposition group, and Republican Jordi Coronas snapped at Sanz “who has seen them and who sees them.” Republican councilors understand that deep down the Colau government is not acting with due forcefulness, that the tables and chairs that are consolidated on the road must be subtracted from those that are added on the sidewalks, that the consensus that must be respected was reached in 2018.
Because in the new war of the terraces, many neighborhood entities are digging another trench, that of those who think that many bars and restaurants in the city are taking advantage of these apocalyptic circumstances to appropriate public space. Months ago, the Federation of Vein Associations of Barcelona (Favb) began a campaign of denunciation, encouraging citizens to photograph those businesses that do nothing other than plant more tables and chairs than authorized. Not all restaurateurs obtained the extension of the watchmen they requested, especially the Ciutat Vella and Gràcia. The municipal government thus runs the risk, among one another, of pinching itself with an uncomfortable clamp.
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