In Toulouse the “Covid terraces” stop on March 31… beyond that is the unknown

They are commonly called “Covid terraces”. The terrace extensions authorized by the town hall of Toulouse during the health crisis stop on March 31. Beyond that is the unknown. The municipality has not yet decided how to change the rules. Some 450 traders, café owners, bistro owners and restaurateurs are concerned. They get impatient. Residents’ associations too.

The “yes but” of residents’ associations

The association “60 million pedestrians” chaired by the Toulouse Richard Mébaoudj is not opposed to the principle of terraces, she just wants their installation to bother anyone, nor the pedestrians nor the cyclistswith a special thought for the disabled. He says “yes to terraces where they do not disturb anyone but no where the public space is nibbled by tables, chairs, flower boxes and other windows“:

This represents an obvious mistreatment of pedestrians – Richard Mébaoudj

With the Covid terraces which are added to the thousand terraces that Toulouse already had before the pandemic, these are not the examples that are missing, he says:

Place du Capitole, place de la Trinité, at the beginning of rue Alsace-Lorraine, it’s stressful

Same opposition to Covid terraces among residents of the association “Well Living Toulouse Center”, overwhelmed by the nuisance. Its president Patrick Affre:

The more terraces there are, the more potential customers there are and therefore more deliveries which cause noise pollution from very early in the morning until very late at night.

Terrace owners don’t know how to plan their season

Impatience is also found among cafe owners, bistro owners and restaurateurs. Olivier Bouscatel, president of the National Group of Independents would like to know how to organize the season because Beautiful days are coming :

For professionals it’s complicated, we don’t know whether to prepare for the summer with 30 or 60 places, it changes everything in terms of equipment and planning – Olivier Bouscatel

Olivier Bouscatel specifies that “the issues raised by the associations concern very small points of friction that existed before the Covid, very well-known places* where there are noise problems with the students and perhaps also one or two places for security problems“. The trader says he is ready to make concessions. Place du Capitole, for example, where he operates “Le Café des Illustres”: “having the car traffic lane which also serves as a pedestrian and a terrace on the left, a terrace on the right, even I find that dangerous. But it’s nothing. In front of the Capitol we have around thirty meters, we can move our terraces back by 2.50m, in the end it doesn’t change much.“

The town hall of Toulouse replies that thearbitration is still ongoing.

*place de la Trinité, the association “Bien vivre à Toulouse” recorded a noise level inside the apartments of local residents of up to 90 decibels.