By Poly Pantelides
NEW cafes and bars are opening up in Nicosia’s old town almost daily, but the area’s phenomenal growth can only be sustained if urgent traffic and parking problems are resolved, a leading architect who lives and works within the city walls has warned.
While high rents and competition from malls have killed the former shopping magnet of Makarios Avenue, retail outlets and more recently cafes, restaurants and bars have mushroomed within the confines of the old Venetian city walls.
With the pedestrianised Ledra and Onasagorou streets now almost saturated, new businesses – mostly food and drink outlets – are spreading in to the side streets, some of these also recently pedestrianised, in what constitutes an astonishing level of growth that has not yet peaked.
The growth has been so rapid that the municipality admitted this week not all the establishments have their full quota of licences and are technically operating illegally. Some businesses are also being fined on almost a daily basis for breaking safety rules by taking more than their allotted space when they place their tables out on the street.
But as Cyprus enters ever deeper into recession, the obvious question is whether this growth can be sustainable.
For architect Andreas Lordos, the answer is yes, but under certain conditions.
The next step is clear, said Lordos: finally put an end to all illegal parking, and provide instead an integrated solution for the old city’s parking needs for both residents and visitors.
Lordos recommends starting from banning – in practice not in theory – all those cars that now take over the town’s pavements. Do this and residents will push the municipality for a solution, he said.
“At that point the municipality ought to provide them with a plan that will show a network of pedestrian areas connected with organised car parks so you can walk from your home to a car park,” he said. “Your home might be five minutes away and it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
This in turn will generate a business interest to provide car park solutions in collaboration with the municipality, for example on a build-transfer-operate model.
With Ledras and Onasagorou streets now nearly saturated, development has to focus beyond those particular areas, Lordos added. But if the surrounding streets’ pavements are filled with cars, this will prevent a potential entrepreneur from setting up a shop, he said.
Communications officer at the municipality, Makis Nicolaides, told the Sunday Mail that the municipality is currently thinking of introducing a pilot residents’ parking scheme in the eastern part of the old town to offer them guaranteed parking in the evenings until the mornings. He added that officials are also looking at the parking situation as a whole but no decisions have yet been taken.
The long-established Shandris restaurant on Pericleous Street, parallel to Ledra Street, has itself benefited from a recent move by the municipality to pedestrianise part of the road, banish cars and plant trees. The restaurant’s owner, Andreas Artemiou, (pictured above) widely known by his nickname Shandris, said that the crisis has slowed down business, with people now more careful on spending money. His previous efforts to open up business in the evening, rather than just for lunch, never took off.
But now, with a beautiful space outside the restaurant, that Shandris himself has decorated with more trees, basil, and climbing plants, he can lay out tables and open for lunch and dinner.
“With the crisis, people have tightened their belts, but the pedestrian area has helped us fight the crisis,” he said.
Shandris set up his eatery in 1969, just a couple of doors down the street from his current premises. He remembers when the old town was still a city of carpenters, tailors and cobblers, who worked alongside a vibrant community of families residing with the walls. He also remembers the post-1974 town when families abandoned their homes after the Turkish invasion.
“Very few stayed behind,” he said.
Shandris survived because his restaurant had an established reputation, and he is delighted with the municipality’s upgrades that are helping him stay competitive in hard times. Even so, he agrees with Lordos that traffic is still a problem in the area and cars are still parked illegally on pavements on a daily basis.
Shandris jokes that he may also be the only businessman in the area who is fully licensed.
Nicolaides admitted that not every business in the old town is fully licensed. “Some have yet to file applications for town planning permissions or submit their architectural plans,” he said.
Obtaining all licences for a business is a notoriously bureaucratic task that involves a number of departments and officials, all of which can contribute to delays.
A business may need to obtain licences from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation and construction licences from town planning authorities. Further licences are needed for setting up tables outside and a different one for having loudspeakers outdoors. Only if all these requirements are met, will a business get a final approval certificate and be fully licensed. This means that in their rush to get their businesses up and running, most newer businesses do not have a final approval certificate, although the municipality was unwilling to give exact figures to the Sunday Mail.
In other areas, the municipality has simplified procedures, encouraging businesses to open up by dropping last year a requirement to provide visitors with parking or else pay a significant levy as a buy-out option. A year after the municipality dropped this as part of a series of investment incentives, Onasagorou Street – once Ledra Street’s far poorer cousin – is full of new ventures.
But the mayor of Nicosia has warned businesses to keep to their side of the bargain by sticking to the rules.
“We emphatically demand that owners of recreational centres use their designated space [outdoors], which will monitor regularly,” Constantinos Yiorkadjis said in an article released to the press this week.
In theory, the centres of Ledras and Onasagorou streets must always have a clear corridor, at least three metres in width, so that fire trucks can move in case of an emergency. This also allows visitors to move about comfortably, Yiorkadjis said. But in practice, businesses will test the rules, occupying more than what they are prescribed as they try to cram just another table in a tiny bit more space.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail recently, Yiorkadjis said many businesses were fined on a daily basis.
“We will continue fining them. The laws must be upheld, for obvious reasons,” said Nicolaides.
But an out-of-court fine of some €85 can rarely compete with the advantage of extra tables which increase a restaurant’s capacity, especially during a busy weekend evening.
And not all are happy with the changes that have taken place so rapidly.
An article on infonistas.com, a website commenting on life in Cyprus, juxtaposes two prevailing, contradictory views.
One author who goes by the pseudonym of ‘Ianos’ describes a previously dodgy, abandoned town that “even a few months ago” made people feel vulnerable to walk around. The old town’s regeneration is a wonderful response to the “fast food philosophy of malls”, a delightful meeting of generations and people from various backgrounds, Ianos said.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, is ‘Theatrique’ who laments the town’s loss of character and the days of getting a coffee and pastry at one of the older, traditional cafes. ‘Theatrique’ wishes for the days when you were not forced to come across pretentious types who have obscured the town’s real nature.
“Can we ban ‘development’ back to their Makarios Avenue?” Theatrique asks wistfully. “The old town never needed it.”
For most people, the truth probably lies somewhere in between, although an interesting aspect of the Ledra Street area’s success is the unexpected similarity it bears to the Mall of Cyprus.
“Old Nicosia offers free entertainment, chance encounters, you don’t have to pay to walk around, it’s interesting,” Lordos said.
“Nicosia’s potential as a pleasant outdoors space where you can eat and drink was only recently recognised.”
A common refrain for why Makarios Avenue was dying at the expense of its nemesis the Mall was because the latter was a safe, controlled environment for families, with guaranteed parking and all facilities within walking distance of each other.
It sounds strangely familiar to what is potentially on offer in the old town.
“What is the Mall? It is a pedestrianised environment. People are thirsty for pedestrianised environments and this includes the residents of the old town,” Lordos said.
So the old town needs to provide for an “even safer environment”, he said. Strategically pedestrianise more streets. Plant trees that can cool passers-by with their shade, absorb pollution and create a beautiful setting. Sort out the parking issue so that people have clear options. Offer interactive maps online and chosen key locations so people know where they can park their vehicles.
Above and beyond all that, however, is the crucial question of whether all these new businesses can survive our economic crisis.
The municipality’s view is to let market forces decide.
“There is currently no cap on licences [in this specific area], though that’s not to say that the community council will allow this to go on indefinitely,” Nicolaides said.
In the meantime, do not be surprised that the old chair maker, or watchmaker who plied his trade for decades has suddenly disappeared and a swanky new bar has taken his place.
