Lisbon
Moves to Protect Historic Stores
Can
a city experiencing a tourism boom avoid turning into a place geared
mainly for visitors?
Feargus
O'Sullivan @FeargusOSull Jul 20, 2016
The city of Lisbon
is stepping in to protect one of its most distinctive assets: its
historical shops. As part of a project initiated last year, the city
has just named 63 retail establishments as deserving special
recognition. To start, this means the stores can apply for special
restoration funds, up to a maximum of €25,000 each.
The stores
themselves, which include a tobacconist, a glove shop, a café, a
pharmacy and a florist, have much in common. They are all businesses
with relatively low cash flows. They are all also distinguished by
particularly beautiful interiors, and many of them sell unusual or
specialty goods or services. The city plans to extend the list to 100
or more by the fall.
Following a model
already due to be introduced in Barcelona, the businesses may also
get special protection from change of use. For lovers of Lisbon’s
existing historic character, the plan comes in the nick of time, even
if it doesn’t as yet actually prevent any of the stores from
closing. In the past few years, pressure on inner Lisbon has become
so intense that it has risked wiping out much of the charm that makes
it so attractive in the first place.
Lisbon’s
attractions, you see, aren’t quite in the heavyweight league you
find in some European capitals. There’s no equivalent to the
Coliseum, or Notre Dame. Instead what the city has long had in
abundance is a glut of un-studied charm, or beauty on a small,
intimate scale. Think tile-clad bars filled with older locals and
wooden boneshaker streetcars. To be sure, most of the city has its
feet firmly in the 21st century, but you can also still find shops
selling lengths of salt cod stored, like bolts of fine silk, in
wooden drawers. Street markets sell sardines from crates, their oily
skins catching the sunlight like mercury. Aesthetically, it’s
irresistible.
Historic liquor
store Ginjinha Sem Rival, also on Lisbon’s new list of protected
businesses. (Juan Lupión/Flickr)
Sure enough,
visitors have not resisted. Overnight stays in Lisbon rose 11.8
percent in the first half of 2015 alone. Over the course of the full
year, tourists spent an estimated €1.62 billion in the city, a
greatly welcome source of revenue in a country whose economy has
never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis.
That lopsided flood
of cash creates problems nonetheless—specifically what’s been
described as a “tourist avalanche.” Landlords can make far more
money by renting or selling to hoteliers and tourist shops than to
long-standing tenants. Small businesses, even those with a solid
customer base, can get flushed out easily. So many have disappeared
in the Baixa area—an elegant 18th century grid flanked by steep
hills in the city’s heart—the fear is it could soon run out of
trade entirely. An area that was once robust in its charm is now
having its marrow sucked out by over-exploitation. As one local told
magazine O Corvo:
"I have
nothing against tourists, but within a few years, they will come here
and what they see will be mainly hotels and shops made for tourists.
There will not be anything authentic left. "
A classic, locally
disliked example of this change was the fate of Tram Line 24. After
disappearing from use in the 1990s, it returned to service last year.
This time, however, it was as a service aimed at tourists, costing €6
a ticket and taking in hilltop viewpoints. It seemed to signal the
beginning of the end for Lisbon’s streetcars’ purpose as a public
utility first and a photo opportunity second.
This is the context
into which the new shop protections must squeeze. When it comes to
tourism, they will at least stop Lisbon landlords from wringing the
golden goose’s neck in the false hope of making it lay more eggs.
At the same time, in focusing on local businesses with special
aesthetic appeal, the protections won’t necessarily lessen the
sense that inner Lisbon is becoming primarily a stage set for
visitors.
Even cities that
have pioneered similar efforts have not been entirely successful.
Barcelona may be moving to protect historic shops, but it has also
just installed plaques in its sidewalks commemorating traditional
business that have already gone under. Like many European cities
these days, Lisbon is trying to manage a delicate balance:
encouraging visitors while simultaneously protecting local character.
They’re not there yet, but at least the city is feeling its way
towards possible solutions.
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