Maintaining a tradition established 25 years ago, ADBP is organizing meetings with candidates for the local elections on October 12, beginning with a debate featuring socialist Alexandra Leitão.
“We have always made it a point to bring all candidates for the Lisbon City Council to our Baixa Pombalina. We believe it’s a way to bring candidates closer to our business owners, providing them an opportunity to express their concerns, talk about Baixa, their commerce, and the challenges they face,” explained the president of ADBP.
In statements to the press, Manuel de Sousa Lopes acknowledged that Baixa Pombalina has “an enormous basket of concerns.”
“Not claims, but concerns. Among them are hygiene, video surveillance, mobility, lighting, and, above all, security. Security is one of the main concerns for the business owners right now,” he listed.
These issues, along with the risk of historic shops disappearing, bureaucratic licensing processes, and the difficulty in distinguishing the responsibilities between the municipality and parish councils, were highlighted by merchants during a session with the lead candidate of the left coalition PS/Livre/BE/PAN.
“Time flies, and we are probably discussing issues today that were already being discussed 20 years ago. Some issues have been resolved, some have improved, and others continue to persistently remain unresolved,” he stated.
Manuel de Sousa Lopes emphasized the importance of strengthening policing in the area but also praised the “excellent” work completed by the police in Baixa Pombalina.
The president of ADBP also addressed mobility, affirming that the association never has and never will advocate for Baixa to become a ‘ghetto’ where only some people have the right to be.
“Baixa must be for everyone and belong to everyone. This means everyone has the right to come here, even by car. Let there be restrictions. For example, if a family wants to come to Baixa by car, let them, because there’s room for them. We just need to manage the cars that are here,” he argued.
For Manuel de Sousa Lopes, the solution could involve “removing all the cars on the surface” that sometimes remain parked for 15 days or a month and relocating them to available parking lots, with the parish councils or the municipality “helping” residents pay for them.
“To have our streets more open, greener, with better sidewalks and terraces so that families feel comfortable walking through our Baixa Pombalina. But we do not support turning this into a place that can be termed a museum or a ghetto where only a few can visit,” he insisted.
The association leader also noted that “the parish council, the city council, and the unions must find a solution” for the trash in this area of the capital.
“Urban hygiene is like a scale: it goes up and down. Depending on the responsible parties, urban hygiene fluctuates,” he concluded.
The current mayor of Lisbon, social democrat Carlos Moedas, is the next candidate scheduled to participate in this series of meetings organized by ADBP on Friday.
The association is still awaiting responses from João Ferreira (CDU – CDU and PEV coalition) and Bruno Mascarenhas (Chega).
