By Gil Skorwid for BBC News
Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, has opened up public outdoor spaces to cafés and bars to boost the local economy, but the move has created conflicts as well as benefits.
“It’s the fourth morning in a row that I’m cleaning and collecting hundreds of scattered outdoor tables into a pile,” complains Asta Baškauskaitė as she cleans up the square near Halės Market in the Old Town area of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
The market itself, and several squares nearby, have been turned into unofficial nightclubs, and the tables are left out when partying ends in the early morning hours. Discarded plastic cups blow around as Baškauskaitė, a Lithuanian-American businesswoman and local community leader, tidies the area so that pedestrians can walk through it.
“Some bars whimper about a lack of employees, not enough to collect the tables at night. I show them a picture of the tables I’ve collected and say, ‘I’m 60 and I collect them in 20 minutes’,” she says. “I want to set a good example for bar owners.”
Vilnius, known for its historic Old Town filled with winding medieval streets, has made headlines with an initiative to boost the local economy during the Covid-19 lockdown – turning the city’s streets and squares into a giant, open-air café. Local establishments have been allowed to use public spaces for business in order to reduce the indoor-space crunch.
Vilnius has become nothing more than one big outdoor bender – Asta Baškauskaitė
Some business owners have benefited from the bonhomie, calling it an economic lifeline after months of hardship. But some residents are deeply unhappy with the move, calling it a short-term initiative that has affected the city’s liveability. “The campaign about Vilnius as a giant open-air café is disinformation,” says Baškauskaitė. “Vilnius has become nothing more than one big outdoor bender.” Read more from BBC News.
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