Mayor Halsema: open the terraces
A packed Vondelpark, and terraces cordoned off with red-and-white tape. Who can make sense of it anymore? This weekend, Mayor Halsema called for terraces to reopen soon. That way, people can enjoy themselves outdoors while still observing the one-and-a-half-metre distance. Other mayors have responded positively to her appeal.
‘More outdoor space is needed,’ said Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam, on talk show Beau this past weekend. Vondelpark is bursting at the seams; it was even cleared because it had become too crowded, and in other parks too, masses of people sat huddled together in the grass enjoying the beautiful weather, while the hospitality industry is required to remain closed. Illogical, according to the mayor. ‘I would rather see people sitting in a somewhat orderly manner on a terrace, because the hospitality industry really does pay attention, instead of a thousand people gathering around the statue of Vondel in Vondelpark.’
“I think we really need many more outdoor spaces. Places like Artis, the Hortus. And what we also need are terraces,” says Mayor Femke Halsema. #BEAU pic.twitter.com/VZU160A8nN
— BEAU (@BeauRTL) April 2, 2021
Paper reality
Other mayors agree with Halsema. The mayors of Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam also believe that terraces could reopen under certain conditions. ‘It is no longer possible to explain that people can sit on a blanket with a bottle of rosé on the grass at Hotel New York, while the hospitality industry is not allowed to open its terraces,’ Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said to Rijnmond. And hospitality entrepreneurs are eager to get started, as became clear from their protest action in March. On Twitter, Paul Depla, mayor of Breda, wrote that it may sound strange to open terraces while pressure on intensive care units is rising, but that it isn’t. ‘Because some measures only work on paper now. We will not defeat the virus with a paper reality. That way, people will not stay home.’
Rules and life
Halsema is cautious. ‘I’m not saying we should simply throw everything wide open, not at all,’ she warned an overenthusiastic Beau. ‘But the rules and life should align with each other a little.’ Opening Artis, as well as the Hortus and the terraces in the capital, would provide just a little more of the space people are longing for, especially when spring weather breaks out.
