I live in Lisbon (not around it, but very close to the riverside and a few blocks away from the old downtown/"Baixa" mentioned in the article), and I have to sa

I live in Lisbon (not around it, but very close to the riverside and a few blocks away from the old downtown/"Baixa" mentioned in the article), and I have to say the situation is not as dire as it seems. Yes, the tuk-tuks are a plague in some very specific historic neighbourhoods (and it boggles the mind as to why they were imported in the first place, although there is a burgeoning trade in "pseudo-Ford-T" electric cars that seem to be almost as popular), and yes, some times it feels like a bit of a circus, but 90% of Lisbon is free from that bustle, which is circumscribed to the "old" riverside downtown. If you ignore that are and, for instance, visit the old Expo 1998 grounds (which were turned into the Parque das Nações, a quite modern mixed business/residential district, with what I think still is Europe's largest oceanarium, modern train/tube/bus station, shopping malls and modern facilities for ministries, telcos, retailers, etc.), you see almost zero tuk-tuks and a very modern, bustling, airy city. And yes, real estate is completely nuts. There are far too many foreigners buying out flats across the old, "traditional" zone, but at least they refurbish them before turning them into AirBnBs--whereas the original owners (which, surprise surprise, were not actually living in them) wouldn't put forward a single penny to renovate -- there are some buildings here and there that have been derelict for over 20 years, right on main avenues. I don't blame the government for having let foreigners invest (golden visas or not). I blame them for not having disenfranchised the original owners and forced them to either maintain the buildings or sell them to local developers and enforced local housing laws. But this being such a small country, let's just say the original landlords are very closely tied to the politicians who overlooked these things.