Expanded outdoor dining is coming to Portland — but for a few confusing hours, it looked as though the city had reversed plans to allow it.
On Thursday, Portland restaurant owners learned they would be able to place dining tables in the streets this summer, as the city’s transportation bureau unveiled a new permitting process to help businesses adapt to social distancing requirements. The next day, owners got an email from the bureau that said their sidewalk cafes would be going away.
The note came as a disorienting blow to restaurant owners already concerned about how they will operate this summer as distancing guidelines make it clear their establishments will need to operate well below capacity.
“This would be the straw on the camel's back for many of us,” tweeted Nick Zukin, the owner of Old Town taqueria Mi Mero Mole.
Hours later, the city’s transportation bureau walked it back.
“This was a mistake on our part, and we need to say that very bluntly,” said John Brady, the transportation bureau’s spokesperson.
The city’s goal, he emphasized, is not to reduce restaurants’ seating capacity — but to make sure the seating they do have is safe. And the current sidewalk cafe permit program, which allows restaurants to have tables directly outside of their restaurants if the sidewalk is wide enough, would not be safe, he said.
The sidewalk cafe permitting program will essentially be folded into the new permitting program announced Thursday, which allows businesses to have dining tables in parking lanes, alleys, or in the middle of streets that have been converted into outdoor plazas.
For businesses that already have a permit for outdoor cafe seating, those permits will be rolled over into new program.
“We will work with them and find space for them,” Brady said. “That might mean they might get space in one of those plazas or the parking lanes.”
Businesses that don’t have permits are looking to get them will need to apply through the Healthy Businesses program.
Reached by phone after the bureau apologized, Zukin said the clarification doesn’t do a whole lot to help his situation. During the summer, he said, he does most of his business on sidewalks. He's located downtown on Northwest 5th Avenue near a MAX and bus line, so there doesn’t seem to be an easy seating setup that will allow him to keep outdoor seats near his restaurant.
“There are no parking spots to take. We can’t close down the street. If we lose our sidewalk seating, there isn’t an option for us,” he said. “And there are a lot of restaurants who are in the exact same position we’re in.”
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