The majority of Madrid residents prefer to restrict public space to terraces. It is one of the conclusions drawn from the public consultation issued by the Madrid City Council, and whose results have just been known, in relation to the Terraces Ordinance that the municipal team intends to modify for its final approval. As reflected, three out of four advocate preventing the installation of new terraces in certain spaces in the city, an opinion that receives 73.57% of the votes.
The question to citizens has been asked through the Decide Madrid portal, the official participation platform of the Consistory. The percentage of men and women who agree that these spaces should be limited is slightly similar, 42% for the former and 31.5% for the latter. What is intended to be altered is the rule that Justice overthrew Almeida and Villacís, when she was still vice mayor, on her way to the Supreme Court. The mandatory public consultation that the City Council had to carry out after the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) annulled the rule, drawn up by the current mayor – who appealed the ruling to gain time and modify the points that had been pointed out by the regional body – already shows some data.
The results, obtained from a sample of 5,777 citizens over 16 years of age, indicate that there is a majority consensus to limit the terrace space from now on. The original text approved by the mayor and the former municipal leader of Ciudadanos contemplated the expansion of these places into bars and restaurants. Sometimes even taking up the space intended for parking. This was precisely the point that the TSJM rejected in its judicial resolution, so now this consultation – which the City Council is obliged to carry out, despite the fact that the results do not have to be binding – comes to correct errors and achieve, this time Yes, the approval of Justice.
There are more interesting data: the questionnaire also asks about the reasons that generate the most inconveniences on some terraces, according to the participants. These can range from non-compliance with the rules by the hoteliers, to the inconvenience or inappropriate behavior caused by the clientele or the lack of control by the City Council.
Precisely, the majority opts for the latter, with 39.69% of the results compared to 26.80% who attribute it to the non-compliance of the owners and 33.51% who believe that the client’s bad actions have a lot to do with it. . The questions posed can be answered with numbers from 1 to 5, with 1 being strongly in disagreement with what is proposed and 5 being quite in favor. In addition to the relevance of installing new terraces or not, the City Council also consults citizens on issues such as whether it is necessary for there to be delimitations or joint planning studies to regulate saturated areas in certain sectors of the city. In this case, 75.23% are in favor of controlling the space and only 5% think that it is not necessary at all.
Other questions are posed positively, such as whether these terraces “provide dynamism to commercial, social and economic activity and promote the safety of passers-by on the streets on which they are located”, to which a 26.74 % respond with the minimum score (they do not believe it) followed by 21.91% who are convinced that they are favorable in this sense. Yes, there is more agreement that these spaces “allow the city’s inhabitants to enjoy a place of leisure and meeting”, the first question of all those posed, and for which almost 30% are totally sure of their positive effect. in entertainment and social activity.
Homogeneous furniture in some areas
One of the most curious is the sixth consultation: should the City Council establish “a homogeneous model of materials and colors” for street furniture throughout the city or, at least, in specific areas? The answers are quite disparate, since 30.69% of the Madrid residents surveyed lean toward the number 5, which means they strongly agree with the measure, and very close is the 28% who think the opposite and score a 1. your total disagreement.
Finally, this public survey gives room for each person to provide a free response with measures or suggestions to improve the Ordinance in question. 53.37% of men and another 46.63% of women responded and, although the public document does not include each text, it does compile the words most mentioned in its recommendations.
The first, after the concept “terraces” (written 3,672 times and leading the ranking, as is logical since it is the topic of debate) is the verb “duty”, which implies an obligation either for the institutions, the owners of the businesses or citizens who consume these services. Precisely the word “hotelier” (502) appears more times than “city council” (491), while others such as “occupy” (536), “limit” (350) or “rest” (350) coincide more than “economic” (65), although “allow” (396) also gets a good part of the mentions.
The third most mentioned noun is “neighbor”, which appears 973 times, while the reference qualifier is “public”, the one that receives the most allusions with 488 responses. Nouns such as “noise” (777) or “sidewalk” (9466), are also mentioned, while the one that receives the least relevance of all those compiled in a list is, curiously, the reason for the discord: “parking”, with 239 mentions.
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