Legal loopholes

Legal loopholes

When Eby Mozafari, a Kurdish Iranian bar owner in the Arco di San Pierino neighbourhood, fitted the bar's bathroom door handle with a coin machine last week, his intention was to protest the ordinance recently passed by Palazzo Vecchio, which obliges all bar and restaurant owners to allow paying

bookmark
Thu 02 Oct 2008 12:00 AM

When Eby Mozafari, a Kurdish
Iranian bar owner in the Arco di San Pierino neighbourhood, fitted the bar’s
bathroom door handle with a coin machine last week, his intention was to
protest the ordinance recently passed by Palazzo Vecchio, which obliges all bar
and restaurant owners to allow paying and non-paying visitors to use their
restroom facilities.

 

Charging 50 cents for the use of
the restroom did not go unnoticed. Mozafari argues that it is his right to
charge patrons for use of the restroom: ‘The bathroom in my bar? I’ll open it
to everybody but for a price, unless they are disabled, pregnant, local
residents or children under 12 years old. I don’t understand why I should offer
a free service that in fact costs me 50 cents’.

 

He has rallied the backing of two
local employer’s associations, the Confcommercio and the Consferescenti, and is
also collecting signatures in San Pierino for a petition he will present to
city officials.

 

The matter is one of correctly
interpreting the law. The municipal law specifies only that local bar and
restaurant owners must provide the service, not that the service has to be
free. ‘The laws don’t say that we can’t charge, and the can’t fine us for it: I
don’t know why people must pay 60 cents to use the bathrooms at the train
station but in my bar the service has to be granted for free’, argues Mozafari.

 

Safety superintendent Graziano
Cioni initially threatened to fine bar owners who charged patrons for restroom
services, but has recently backed down, stating he is willing to explore
possible solutions with disgruntled merchants. 

 

 

Related articles

NEWS

Public transport in Florence and Tuscany becomes contactless

Visa cardholders can ride for free from April 10 to May 5, 2024.

NEWS

Sephora opens flagship store in via dei Calzaiuoli

Highlights include make-up services and just-released beauty ranges.

NEWS

Changes at the Uffizi

Paperless ticketing, evening and the occasional Monday openings

LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE