Sidewalk Dining, Keeping a Clear Pathway
Friday night a friend and I decided to meet for dinner not far from my place.
We decided upon beso, downtown’s newest restaurant. How new? Friday night was opening night. This is the narrow place a couple of doors West of the burned-out Copia, in a space that was the short lived-restaurant, Red. beso had a few minor glitches as you might expect but overall it is a welcome addition to the scene. We sat outside and the tables were arranged so as to keep a clear path open on the sidewalk. Across the street at Bridge & Tunnel Pizza the tables were also arranged so as to respect the pedestrian passing by.
Above, at beso, diners enjoy dinner while a pathway was kept clear for pedestrians — those walking, those of us using wheelchair and those pushing baby strollers. Even without Copia this block seems destined to have valet parking. While we were eating the valet had only a small space and frankly nobody seemed to use it.
Flannery’s down the street has larger tables and chairs arranged in a single row. Here I was able to take the path near the buildings and get by just fine — even with people seated. It wasn’t generous near the entry but it was doable.
Unacceptable was the situation at Solace and Sugar (formerly KYO) at 14th and Washington, shown above. All pedestrians were forced to the outer edge of the sidewalk. A man pushing a baby stroller followed right behind me just trying to get through as well.
Sidewalk dining is one those things that makes living in an urban setting so great. However it needs to be respectful of the needs of all pedestrians using the same space. Clearly it is possible for some establishments to have sidewalk service without forcing pedestrians to hug the curb.
The city must have some sort of guidelines for those establishments that obtain cafe permits. But who is left to enforce the rules. Like the numerous valet stands that basically raise a middle finger to the idea of fairly sharing the public right of way, nobody seems to exist at city hall to monitor the situation.
As a property owner in the downtown community improvement district I pay additional taxes for increased services. Helping monitor the increasing number of sidewalk cafes and valet stands would certainly be an improvement. Perhaps this is already being done which would help explain why most of the cafes I encountered left sufficient space. Or simply that the operators of those establishments are more considerate than others. The problem likely exists in other parts of the city with sidewalk dining.
It definitely is a problem in other parts of the City–here in the CWE, the grouping of restaurants on the south side of Laclede at Euclid make it difficult to maneuver anything more than a (thin) human body. The permanent enclosures at Duff’s & Kopperman’s and at Little Saigon, while excellent for preserving some sidewalk space, are also difficult for wheeled pedestrians to traverse, particularly when there are other people sharing the sidewalk.
.
When our kids were still in the stroller, the Park East Tower was under construction and the north sidewalk on Laclede was closed. We found ourselves walking in the street more often than not, and we never bought one of the double monster strollers like most people do. I’ve often wondered why the City doesn’t have major construction projects install covered walkways to take the place of the sidewalks like they do in Chicago or New Orleans (or even, for that matter, downtown Little Rock, where I saw them last).
.
I love our outdoor cafes … but we need space to get to them!
I agree, enforcement is the key. Out in Colorado, since the liquor laws say you need to have a defined premises, every outdoor dining area that serves alcohol is fenced in, making it much easier to define a pedestrian path at the outset and to maintain it over time. Whether that’s necessary here, I don’t know. But I do know that too many operators and/or owners here view the public right right of way as an extension of their private property, and that sharing it with non-customers is both a burden and a magnanimous gesture on their part . . . .
Steve
More importantly – how was the food at beso…inquiring minds want to know!
As St Lou’s citizens learn the joys and benefits of open streets and sidewalks, the monitoring and enforcement of written rules and those dependent on the golden rule become increasingly important. As you shown before, sidewalks are being used to park SUVs so the fans can have more room to party in the parking lot. Even the bike path behind the Art Museum has been used to park cars on weekends. Sidewalks are simple for most to understand but other issues, even lighting, have much do do with whether the city can enjoy the fruits of interaction.
– –
Making the area friendlier for higher quality life styles seem to get in the way of local fun seekers: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2008-04-30/news/downtown-st-louis-residents-to-the-dolce-nightclub-shut-the-hell-up/
Great post, Steve. I’ve long been annoyed by the lack of enforcement on this issue. Even as an able-bodied pedestrian, I have had trouble downtown getting past sidewalk areas. On some blocks there often is a dichotomy of dead sidewalk space where we’d want to see more activity and a clusterf-ck of outdoor dining. The CID seems a logical entity to enforce the codes that keep our sidewalks both active and functional.
They better get their damn ass out of the way.
Just for grins (and my own edification), I compared St. Louis’ and Denver’s rules. Given the lack of specificity in our regulations, along with no fees being paid by the restaurant, it’s no surprise that enforcement is non-existent:
.
St. Louis: “There must be enough room left to walk.” (http://stlcin.missouri.org/FAQs/displaytopicdetail.cfm?TopicID=563).
.
Denver: “If the sidewalk is 21 feet wide or greater a minimum of 8 feet of clear sidewalk must be provided; If the sidewalk is less than 21 feet a minimum of 5 feet of clear sidewalk must be provided.” (http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/490/documents/Street%20Furniture%20and%20Table%20and%20Chairs%20060705.pdf).
Hey Steve,
As someone who is right now going through the process of getting a sidewalk permit, I will say there are rules. I had to include a drawing of the area as well. Somewhere in city hall is the hand drawn picture they asked me to draw showing the front of the building and the chairs. I’ll need to also get what I believe is called an encroachment permit and attach the city of St. Louis to my insurance.
I’ve been working on this project for nearly a year and in that time I’ve notised pedestrian traffic increasing on this stretch of Olive. I’m excited to be the first to have outdoor seating in the neighborhood since the collapse of Gaslight Square.
It’s a shame that there isn’t active enforcement of sidewalk seating. I doubt there are many bar owners or restauranteurs who wouldn’t alter their outdoor seating arrangements if they knew it was alienating people with children or the disabled.
I am annoyed by blocked sidewalks (Fridays downtown before a Cardinals game for instance). I tend to believe it is not usually the owner/manager’s fault or intention. I bet it is often employees exercising some initiative when they setup the tables to make things “better” as they see it. Someone at the CID needs to work with businesses to explain the importance of passable walkways. That might help fix the issue without blaming business owners. For those who block sidewalks completely (yes you Friday’s) they should be cited and eventually their permits revoked.
The important thing to remember is that cafe seating is vital to making these neighborhoods look exciting. Plus, these are the seats that smokers will need eventually when Missouri joins the civilized world and bans smoking. Come on STL! Paris, Ireland, UK, NY, California, IL and Washington – to name a few cities, states and countries – have done it. The list goes on and they all survived. Even Minneapolis which is considerably colder than here.
It may “not usually [be] the owner/manager’s fault or intention”, but it IS his or her responsibility. Citing the establishment/management will have more long-term impact than citing individual employees who may have taken some “initiative”. But I agree, enforcement is key. One thing Denver’s done is to change the name of Parking Management to Right-of-Way Enforcement, so I’m guessing they’ve been tasked with enforcing issues such as this, along with keeping a lid on valet parking, in addition to their main responsibility of writing parking tickets – don’t see why that couldn’t work here, as well . . .
I live in the Loop, and there’s a few restaurants w/ sidewalk seating that do just fine, pedestrian wise. There’s one that even on a slow day, it’s nearly impossible to walk through without hitting chairs. On busy nights, I’ve even been yelled at by employees to get out of their area.