Restaurants – along with a lot of other businesses and people – are being severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most restaurants are small businesses run by entrepreneurs trying to create jobs in our neighborhoods, and they often employ people who are struggling to get by the most. But with needed restrictions in place on indoor dining to limit the spread of COVID-19, many restaurants are struggling to survive – 17% nationally have closed.
Recent announcements about outdoor dining in OTR and at The Banks have generated significant discussion, and begged the question of whether we should expand outdoor dining to other locations in the city, and if so, how? The short answer should be yes and urgently, but how this is done is important and there should be caveats.
First, any expansion of restaurants to outdoor public space should require that restaurants lease that space from the city at market rates on a square foot basis. Outdoor seating on sidewalks and/or parking spaces is public space – owned by the public. It’s only right that the restaurant pays a fair rate for that space just like they do indoor space, and with reduced public space that the public gets benefit from that.
