That’s a good thing - we are seeing a privatization of public spaces by private entrepreneurs. That nice town square where people could hang out? It’s now an outdoor restaurant. That lovely street? Tables full of tourists eating. The sidewalk? No way to get through, there’s now a restaurant. It might have “flair” and “outdoor culture”, but we really need to use sidewalks as sidewalks and not as restaurants
In my city you have to apply at the local government if you want to have outdoor seatings, you can request only a given amount of square meters. Then sometimes they even check it, local police measures the area the tables and chairs cover from the sidewalk with a rolling measure tool. Pubs have to pay a fine if they use more space than they were allowed to.
In some other parts of the city car parking spaces are converted to terraces in the summer, and in the winter, when no one wants to seat outside locals can use the same space for parking.
So this can be done a bit more better than all or nothing, I love to have a coffee or beers outside in the summer.
That’s pretty much how it works in the Italian cities where I have lived. Especially in covid, a lot of parking got converted.
This seems to be specifically about the maze of narrow streets in the centre of Firenze and there really isn’t any room for eating there. And, tbh, when was there 2ish months ago, there was mostly the 1 or 2 bar stools outside a few places, so this seems to be all headline and no story.
Here, in a drunk tourist district residents always complain about the noise of the drunk tourists leaving the bars at night. Local government doesn’t want to limit bars too much, because they pay a lot of taxes, but the residents elect the government. So similar back and forth going on, before election they make it a bit more strict for the pubs, but later slowly everything goes back to the previous situation.
That’s a good thing - we are seeing a privatization of public spaces by private entrepreneurs. That nice town square where people could hang out? It’s now an outdoor restaurant. That lovely street? Tables full of tourists eating. The sidewalk? No way to get through, there’s now a restaurant. It might have “flair” and “outdoor culture”, but we really need to use sidewalks as sidewalks and not as restaurants
In my city you have to apply at the local government if you want to have outdoor seatings, you can request only a given amount of square meters. Then sometimes they even check it, local police measures the area the tables and chairs cover from the sidewalk with a rolling measure tool. Pubs have to pay a fine if they use more space than they were allowed to.
In some other parts of the city car parking spaces are converted to terraces in the summer, and in the winter, when no one wants to seat outside locals can use the same space for parking.
So this can be done a bit more better than all or nothing, I love to have a coffee or beers outside in the summer.
That’s pretty much how it works in the Italian cities where I have lived. Especially in covid, a lot of parking got converted.
This seems to be specifically about the maze of narrow streets in the centre of Firenze and there really isn’t any room for eating there. And, tbh, when was there 2ish months ago, there was mostly the 1 or 2 bar stools outside a few places, so this seems to be all headline and no story.
When will be the next elections there?
Here, in a drunk tourist district residents always complain about the noise of the drunk tourists leaving the bars at night. Local government doesn’t want to limit bars too much, because they pay a lot of taxes, but the residents elect the government. So similar back and forth going on, before election they make it a bit more strict for the pubs, but later slowly everything goes back to the previous situation.