The set Liberdade Square, Aliados Avenue and General Humberto Delgado Square constitutes the civic centre of the city of Porto and the heart of the so called Baixa Portuense (town centre), which over the past few decades has been suffering the effects of housing desertification, depletion of services (namely financial and insurance activities), and the adverse effects of rent freeze. Despite the ongoing intervention in the block of Cardosas and planned interventions in other blocks of Aliados, the success of the urban rehabilitation in the blocks bordering the avenue lies in the strategy to locate new commercial activities and services as well as to attract new residents and tourists. Therefore, the operation is based on an economic and social stimulating strategy of the city centre of Porto, its most decisive nucleus and surroundings; an area of 17.4 hectares, which includes 440 plots of land.
Thus, a partnership between Porto Vivo, SRU and Porto Lazer, EEM, was created in order to carry out the project "1st AVENUE - Economic and Social Stimulation of the City Centre of Porto", which was submitted in 2009 and approved in 2010 by the Thematic Territorial Enhancement Operational Programme (POVT) and the Directorate-General for Spatial Planning and Urban Development (DGOTDU). It is also worth highlighting the participation of Metro do Porto, SA, as partner of the operation, with a view to promote mobility in the Town Centre in conjunction with the Urban Area Management Unit of Aliados, within the different proposed actions.
The project's general and specific objectives are the following:
- General objectives:
- promote the attractiveness of the centre of Porto;
- create conditions to attract investment for its rehabilitation and revitalisation;
- focus on accessibility through urban public transport and pedestrian use of the central area;
- develop action and strengthening methodologies of citizenship and a sense of citizen ownership;
- Specific objectives:
- relaunch the Town Centre as a highly specialised goods and services destination;
- stimulate the public space and create a dynamic and safe environment with good environmental quality;
- engage citizens in developing creative and innovative solutions appropriate to the expectations and interests of the city, actively involving them in decision-making and transformation processes;
- provide urban area management, and its continuity beyond the time frame of the programme;
- initiate, foster and embed partnerships between public and private agents;
- promote networking amongst agents.
In order to enforce the proposed objectives, this operation is geared towards the implementation of the following actions:
1. Creation of the Urban Area Management Unit of Aliados to boost demand for spaces and to attract a high level of trade, services, hotel and catering activities, amongst others, relying on innovative dissemination tools by creating an interactive platform for content sharing;
2. Participation Line which seeks the promotion of citizen training and involvement in processes that generate creative ideas and enable decision making;
3. Interactive Line which aims to promote active citizen participation in artistic and cultural activities, whether at the production phase or at the presentation of events;
4. Publish studies on the intervention area with a promotional purpose in order to maximise the corresponding impact. These research projects will be published in print and digital version, available via the Internet.
The operation runs between 2011 and the end of 2013, with a total expenditure volume of about €1.3 M, and obtaining a community contribution of €1.1 M by means of the Thematic Territorial Enhancement Operational Programme (POVT) of the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) 2007-20134, in the intervention field “Innovative Actions for Urban Development", integrating "Priority 5 - Infrastructures and Equipment for Territorial Enhancement and Urban Development".
