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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Angelika During the pandemic, San Francisco restaurants have gone through tough times, and only as of recently, the few establishments which have kept their doors open, are now starting to thrive again. Many old and established restaurants had to close their doors indefinitely, there's a long list of those. Also keep in mind, that it's actually quite difficult to maintain a steady revenue stream for restaurant owners in San Francisco during normal times, thanks to the competitive environment in such a culinary hotspot. Rents have always been crazy high, and finding qualified staff quite a challenge. Profits are generally minimal, and for a restaurant to survive, it's basically required that they fill every last table, every night.
For many months, restaurants in San Francisco were only allowed to offer takeout an no table service. By Juni 2020, the city permitted serving guests in outside seatings under strict hygienic restrictions. But not every restaurant in San Francisco has outside tables. Very few do, actually, because of the city's windy climate, and even at the end of a sunny day, come nightfall, outside temperatures usally drop to levels too low for sitting outside.
But tough times call for tough measures and the city started to cut through red tape and allowed restaurants to set tables on the sidewalk and even some parking spaces in front of their property, without much bureaucratic rigamarole. As Michael has pointed out here numerous times, cities like San Francisco a rife with unbelievable bureaucratic overhead, and just a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to turn parking spaces or sidewalks into restaurant zones. Hearings, years of endless heated discussions between car haters and residents demanding their parking spaces would have ensued, finally resulting in an inevitable deadlock.
Sure enough, restaurant owners started creating new spaces outside, by cobbling together so-called parklet structures, often crude wooden contraptions to shield the newly set up restaurant tables from the elements and street noise. Now, we have this hodgepodge of new spaces. Some are rather simplistic, others feature elaborate acrylic glass structures, and space heaters for the cold seasons. For example, the restaurant right next to our apartment building, which had changed owners during the pandemic and reopened recently, erected a giant parklet which is very well received by many patrons, right next to our entrance door. People love it to dine there in the evenings, and almost all tables are busy almost every night. Every time we set out to commence our evening walk around the neighborhood, we're walking past diners visibly enjoying themselves.
Since many restaurant owners have invested substantial amounts of money into these structures, and since restaurants have been going through tough times lately, the city councelmen decided to continue allowing those parklets. At first, the parklet permits were temporary, but now they're permanent, and I think it's great, just like having those "Slow Streets" without through traffic (Rundbrief 09/2020), which were also created during the pandemic. Many residents want those to stay as well, and have already launched petitions to cut them into law.
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