Already 177 bicycles are parked against the Grote Kerk in Enschede. It is Friday afternoon half past two, the sun is shining brightly and the terraces on the Grote Markt are already quite full. Four bicycles are also parked in front of the blackboard of café Paddy’s, where the owner has written ‘NO bicycles here please’. And a scooter.
Wim Romijn and Damon van der Horst from Dedemsvaart came by car and ordered their second Radler from Humprey’s. ‘We are here more and more often, yes’, laughs Van der Horst, who is now taking a day off from his job as a car polisher. ‘In Zwolle, where I study, it is much busier and there is never room on the terraces,’ says Romijn. ‘There is more space here, while there is still plenty going on. Everything is coming run†
‘Terrace City’
Then the so-called XL terraces are not even displayed. In corona times, pubs were allowed to set up the terrace wider, further onto the square. It was quieter on the street, there was plenty of space and, moreover, people had to keep one and a half meters away from other households. The larger terraces were so popular that the municipality also wants to allow the XL terraces this summer. Catering entrepreneurs hope that the temporary municipal ordinance for this year will be arranged as soon as possible. This autumn, the city council will vote on an amendment to the zoning plan, which will give the terraces a permanent place in the city in the summer.
“Enschede has become much more inviting due to the corona period,” says Enschedeër Ronald Boxem. ‘Yes, you could say it’s more of a terrace town now. You used to sit on a terrace once. Now the Oude Markt is the backyard of the city.’ Karlijn van der Walle has lived in Groningen for forty years, but is today visiting the sick in her hometown. “You don’t get that in Groningen with such large terraces with so much space,” she says from behind her Rivella soft drink on the terrace of Aspen Valley.
Freedom
Before the corona crisis, the Dutch were already very happy on the terrace with a K&A (Coffee & Apple Pie) or a bowl of bitterballen surrounded by beer. But corona seems to have strengthened the love for the terrace. With every first ray of sunshine that appeared on the squares in the past two years, society and the House of Representatives called out to open the terraces. ‘The terrace is the perfect metaphor for freedom’, said urban geographer Irina van Aalst in the spring of last year. de Volkskrant†
To keep the one and a half meters, to keep people out instead of in and out of leniency with ailing bar owners, municipalities throughout the Netherlands allowed operators to make their terraces bigger. Dozens of inner cities degenerated into one large terrace. According to figures from catering market researcher datalinq At its peak, the number of terraces in the Netherlands was 3 percent higher than before the pandemic.
From a tour of the NOS It turns out that municipalities in Rotterdam and The Hague are also somewhat more generous: terraces there may be 25 percent larger this year than before. But in many other cities, such as Groningen, Maastricht and Utrecht, the municipality is reclaiming public space. There the old normal has been brought back.
livability
In Amsterdam, the terrace space even increased by 5 percent at its peak last year. In the Red Light District and the Nieuwmarktbuurt, true tourist magnets, the municipality decided to cancel the extended terrace permit quite abruptly. The crowds are back, every centimeter of pavement is desperately needed to keep the city center somewhat passable. Catering entrepreneurs reacted robbery and outraged about the decision, and suggested they only settle on busy days. The municipality does not agree to this, from this Friday some of the chairs and tables will have to go back into the storage room.
Where the capital limits the terraces to promote quality of life, the quality of life in Enschede increases through terraces. Willem Wilminkplein, a green space in between the Metropool concert hall, was notorious for the nuisance caused by loitering youths and drug dealers. In times of corona, cut open containers with a beer tap and a temporary terrace made of pallet wood were placed there on sunny days. The onlookers on the terrace chased the nuisances away. ‘Since then there has been much less nuisance, a win-win situation’, says Ronald Boxem, who lives directly behind the square. ‘Although those boys with their bags of drugs have been coming back a bit in recent weeks. Let them rebuild that terrace quickly.’