Restaurants and Cafes March in Zamalek

Zamalek residents and cafe/restaurant owners are at it once again.

Cafe and restaurant owners with their staff and employees took to the streets today to march from Boulevard Cafe throughout the rest of Zamalek against what they see is an injustice against the businesses they operate in the district.

Some residents see this march as an attempt to disrupt the peace and quiet that the neighborhood is known for, while the cafe owners see it as a way to make their requirements heard as well as their ideas to help improve Zamalek. The following is what the 100 or so unlicensed cafe owners and entrepreneurs are petitioning the governor for:

1. The 100 or so unlicensed restaurants and cafes employ over 4,000 employees, spending approximately 4 million LE in monthly salaries
2. Eight hundred thousand pounds are spent towards insurance per month, totaling 9 million per year.
3. Four hundred thousand pounds are spent towards taxes per month, totaling 4.8 million per year.
4. Six million pounds worth of raw materials are bought per month.
5. 7.2 million is spent in monthly rents.
6. The investments from restaurants and cafes alone in the Zamalek area reaches approximately 75 million.

As the owners see themselves as creating job opportunities and supporting Egypt’s failing economy, they have not ignored the fact that law and order should be implemented in the neighborhood. The following is also being petitioned to the governor:

1. The cafe and restaurant owners will create a fund to improve Zamalek in terms of its cleanliness, to help beautify the existing neighborhood, add more greenery and fund an association that will overlook all the aforementioned.
2. Those who would like to apply for licenses and occupy a space of less than 200 meters square will pay 30,000 Egyptian pounds a year to the government and those who occupy more than 200 meters square will pay license fees of 60,000 LE per year.
3. There will be no sidewalk seating permitted for cafes/restaurants unless there is space of one meter width provided for pedestrians to pass.
   1. After 1 am, no seating areas will be permitted on the sidewalks. If this law is broken, a penalty of 10,000 LE is to be paid to the government immediately.
   2. If the same cafe/restaurant defaults and breaks the law again, they will be closed immediately and proper legal action will be taken.

While the march was happening in Zamalek, Residents’ Association board member Nazli Shahine was contacted to share her point of view as a Zamalek resident.

In conversation, Mrs. Shahine addressed the strides the business owners were trying to take and wondered why all this hasn’t been done already.

“All these business are illegally functioning. When the government actually closes them down, they end up spending in the range of 80 LE to begin functioning again, which ends up not solving the situation. As residents, we are unhappy about the decline of our neighborhood.”

As Zamalek residents, Mrs. Shahine added, “we don’t want to stop the businesses from running. Quite the contrary, this country can’t move forward without civil-minded entrepreneurs, but we are worried for our safety. It can’t be normal when a resident who simply wants his parking space back is beaten up by a cafe owner who has taken over his space for the seating area of his restaurant.”

So what is the solution?

“We, as the Association and Zamalek residents, have a suggestion to relocate all these cafes and restaurants to the Nile banks close to the Sofitel hotel and Novotel*,” she proposed. “The areas are unused and worn down, we have world renowned architects, interior designers and urban planners willing to take on this project for free to create an area that rivals those of the Western world where you can find Cairo’s young up and coming businesses located. This way, we’ll be easing the traffic on the residential areas, while helping improve an area that has long been overlooked.”

WE SAID THIS: Here’s to hoping that both the business owners and residents can come to a conclusion that pleases all entities and ends up being the best thing for the country.

*At the time of the conversation, Mrs. Shahine had still not shared this idea with the rest of the Association, but it is something she would like to put on the table.