One of Budapest’s nicest pastimes made impossible on some pedestrian streets

A peculiar grand coalition could put an end to one of the best things to do in Budapest’s city centre: sitting out on a terrace in a quiet pedestrian street to enjoy a coffee or lemonade. This would be a severe blow not only to tourism and hospitality, but to the residents living there too.

Terraces could be banned from Erzsébetváros’s busiest stretches

In Budapest’s most tourist-thronged district, Erzsébetváros, the local council decided in February to render terrace operations all but impossible on the district’s pedestrian streets opened last year. The familiar cityscape of chatting, coffee-drinking, breakfasting and dining folk in the heart of Erzsébetváros could thus be utterly transformed. According to Telex, “the new rules chiefly affect the pedestrian sections opened last year: Kazinczy Street, part of Dob Street, a stretch of Madách Imre Road, and Csányi Street.”

The proposal was tabled by a councillor from the district’s Democratic Coalition (DK), but it won support from Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and Momentum’s local representatives—who are nationally in opposition. Its gist: a terrace may open only if at least half the residents in each of the four surrounding blocks give their backing. Anyone familiar with inner-city block dynamics knows this majority is nigh-on impossible to muster, given that most flats are unoccupied, rented out, or run as Airbnbs.

Civil disobedience: a terrace opens in the city centre

Dávid Vitézy, Budapest municipal assembly member, president of the Podmaniczky Movement and Fidesz-backed (among others) mayoral candidate in last year’s local elections, deems the approved rules contrary to Budapesters’ views. A Medián poll commissioned by his team found 80 per cent of residents consider terraces “an integral part of big-city life.” He calls the decision staggering, since the district has not only scuppered late-night operations (which he agrees need regulating) but daytime ones too.

Vitézy’s group thus staged a publicity stunt yesterday with a local civil outfit, the Colourful Erzsébetváros Association, by opening a terrace. The association has also launched a petition for terrace approvals, with over 1,200 signatures already.

A slice of culture under threat?

Balázs Beregi, the councillor behind the terrace curbs, insists he belongs to no party but represents the affected ward. Residents have issues with terraces, he says, which is why he tabled the proposal. Nor, he adds, is it insoluble to win majority resident support at block meetings for terrace openings. Back when pubs plonked their outdoor seating under residents’ windows, he notes, nobody thought to ask what they made of it. Now is the time to right that wrong.

One hospitality venue operator running terraces counters that the new rules will cripple their business, scuppering cultural events and leaving the district culturally poorer. This, he says, is not what Péter Niedermüller, the DK mayor, promised in his campaign—so he calls for the approved proposal to be amended.

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