• MARTA LAW

    Madrid

Updated Sunday, May 3, 2020 - 4:00 PM

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  • Phase I. Hoteliers say that with a 50% capacity they will be able to open some terraces
  • Coronavirus. Neighborhood rebellion against the expansion of hours and space on terraces

"You can go have a beer or a vermouth on a terrace." This was announced on Tuesday by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, one of the measures in his de-escalation plan: the reopening of the terraces of bars and restaurants. After 46 days since the closure of all hospitality by the State of Alarm due to the coronavirus, the Government has set a date after which it will once again be allowed to sit in the outdoor spaces of the bars.

The start of the terrace season coincided in time with day one of confinement. The 54,473 tables and 180,793 chairs of the 5,322 bars with permission to deploy their terraces, one in three in the capital, were stacked inside each location until further notice. If there is no change, on May 11, 50% of the furniture, following the new limit established by the Government, could go out again.

If all the terraces opened, the people of Madrid would have at most 26,276 tables throughout the municipality. And the distribution by neighborhoods is uneven. Sol, Hispanoamérica, Trafalgar, Palacio and Aluche are, in that order, the five with the most tables allowed, according to the analysis of the latest data published in the Madrid City Council's premises and activities census.

At the district level, Centro, Chamartín and Chamberí lead the ranking of the number of tables on terraces, exceeding 2,000. In the Centro district, however, about 80% of catering establishments do not have a terrace license. Vicálvaro, Barajas and Usera are, on the contrary, the districts with the fewest tables allowed today.

In the current scenario, with reduced mobility, taking into account the number of inhabitants in each area and the established limitation, there are 42 chairs for every 100 residents of Sol on the terraces of their neighborhood. The inhabitants of Los Jerónimos, Cortes, Palacio and Trafalgar, all of them in the districts of Centro and Chamberí, could also have an easier time getting a place. More complicated will be in Rejas, Cuatrovientos, Pradolongo or Camp . Bypassing this territorial disadvantage is simple: just move to another area with more options.

Terrazas de Madrid Source: Madrid City Council and own elaboration. Data from March 2020. The diameter of the points is drawn based on the surface of each terrace. To calculate the number of tables allowed, 50% of the tables have been found in the seasonal period and have been rounded down, except in cases where there was less than one table. For sites per 100 inhabitants, an average of 4 chairs per table has been estimated. Census data may contain errors due to lack of updating.

See on the interactive map where the establishments with a terrace license are and what size they can occupy and the number of tables they could take out according to the limit announced by the Government. Search for a specific address or click on the dots to see more information.

Hoteliers do not know if they will be able to open

The question now is: which terraces will open and which will not? What happens will depend on the situation of each hotelier. Hospitality of Spain, business organization that represents the sector, transmitted in a press release after learning the scenarios of the de-escalation that the measures were "hasty, with a lack of consensus in the sector and with many unknowns still to be cleared".

At first, the main question revolved around the ERTEs, since the hoteliers did not know whether to serve a terrace with the limitation of tables they could have only part of the staff working.

Faced with the discontent of the sector, the Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz , said on Friday, three days after the first announcement of the measures, that the ERTEs will continue but "it is necessary to determine to what degree and at what rate." In an interview on the Al Rojo Vivo program of La Sexta, Díaz explained that bars, restaurants and businesses that only partially open will be able to maintain the ERTE if they need it and remove from that situation only the workers they need to resume activity . "Rest assured that the mechanism continues despite their reopening," he said in statements collected by Europa Press.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister announced that the terraces will be able to open with up to 50% of their capacity instead of the 30% that was initially announced, maintaining the recommended safety distance of two meters. The measure has already been formalized through a ministerial order published this Sunday in the Official State Gazette.

"Hopefully, if ERTEs and rents make us very flexible, we could not lose. But winning is not going to be won by anyone," said the general director of the La Musa group, Eduardo Basanta . The changes announced so far have not been reflected in regulations, so there is still part of the uncertainty of the first days.

For each hotelier to make his numbers, Basanta insists that it is important to know "all the rules of the game". "You have all the expenses to open: electricity, rent, gender ... to have only three tables is difficult," he explains.

"They have already started calling us clients, because we have a very nice terrace, and we have to tell them that we don't know what we are going to do," they tell us by phone from the La Tragantía restaurant , in the Ciudad Jardín neighborhood, with a terrace of 163 square meters and a license for 66 tables. "Until they clarify the ERTE we are not going to do anything."

The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida , proposed on April 22 a de-escalation with the expansion of hotel terraces to facilitate the maintenance of social distance. The deputy spokesperson for Más Madrid at the City Council, Rita Maestre , proposed in the plenary session on April 17 some measures in this regard: "Why not maintaining the capacity of the terraces, we enable the temporary use of parking bands for placement of terraces, so that they can get more, keeping security measures? "

The regulations published this Sunday leave open the option to expand the area intended for terraces with the permission of the City Council. At most, there could be up to a maximum of ten people "per table or group of tables" allowing the minimum inter-personal safety distance to be respected.

"In a state as serious as the one we are in, extraordinary measures are required," says Basanta, who is in favor of allowing terraces to be opened for all hoteliers and not just those with licenses. "It can even be fun, a photo for history," he adds.

"In the 80s, when the terraces were not fully regulated, it was wonderful to see Madrid's consumption on the street, the city had a life ... it amazed me, it gave me great joy. It was good to regulate it because it ended up being a mess, but in this situation it would be necessary to give a bit of wide sleeve ", considers this hotelier with more than 20 years of experience in the sector.

Several neighborhood associations, however, reject the City Council's plans, yet to be finalized, to transfer more public space and flexibility of opening hours to the hospitality industry, alleging that "the rest of the residents cannot be altered," reported Pablo R. Rub s.

According to the data that the City Council periodically publishes, the largest terraces in Madrid extend up to about 500 square meters. One of them is that of the Anpe Cafeteria, in the Mirasierra neighborhood, with a license to deploy 102 tables, which would stay at a maximum of 51. Others, on the other hand, barely reach two square meters while the median value of surface that can occupy these spaces is 25 square meters.

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Know more

  • Covid 19
  • Coronavirus
  • ERTE
  • State of alarm
  • Descaled
  • Quarantine
  • José Luis Martínez-Almeida

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