Patios Prevail; Fines Squashed

Duncan Goodall won’t need to dismantle an outdoor dining patio this Friday and rebuild it five weeks later, thanks to a reprieve from City Hall.

City Hall announced the reprieve on Thursday, one day before it threatened to begin levying $250 daily fines against Goodall and three other restaurateurs for maintaing dining areas in city parking spaces.

The four eateries — Koffee?, Choupette Crêperie & Cafè, Atelier Florian, and Zeneli Pizzeria e cucina Napoletan — had city permits to create dining areas on parking spaces from April 15 through Nov. 15 under a popular pandemic-spawned program. They kept the patios up during this mild winter, and people kept eating outside. Then last week a city inspector ordered them to dismantle the areas as of this Friday until April 15 or face the daily fines.

Goodall, who runs Koffee? on Audubon, asked for a waiver, as did others facing the fines. He argued that it didn’t serve the public interest to have him spend $1,000 to remove the area for a few weeks and then rebuild it, especially when spring has almost arrived and when a combination of climate change and new consumer habits were making year-round outdoor dining more viable.

“We will not be issuing new fines,” mayoral spokesperson Lenny Spieller confirmed Thursday. He said the city is working on revising the patio program’s guidelines for next winter.

“Outdoor dining has been a great thing for customers, restaurants, and the city at large,” Spieller added. ​“The city’s initial outdoor dining program began during the pandemic as a way to support increased dining options for residents and increased occupancy for restaurants. It clearly demonstrated sustained interest and continues to be a dining option that many patrons and businesses alike continue to enjoy. It’s added a new vibrancy to many of our streets as well.

“There are some challenges around snow removal, ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance, and other logistics that need to be revisited and addressed, but we’re committed to working through those so that even more outdoor dining opportunities can be made available for as many restaurants as possible all year round.”

Goodall expressed gratitude for the city decision. ​“I look forward to seeing the new rules they are working on that would allow year-round outdoor seating,” he said.

The Independent’s initial report on the pending fines sparked broader discussion in town about outdoor dining, and briefly became a campaign issue: Liam Brennan, who’s seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination, released the above video tying outdoor dining to the city’s quest for increased bail for some repeat violent offenders newly rearrested for gun crimes. He argued that the former makes a city safer by having more eyes on the street, while the latter fails to protect public safety by merely locking more people up. The Elicker Administration argued that the bail proposal would target a very small group of repeat violent offenders within a broader anti-violence strategy that addresses crime’s root causes. (Click here to read a previous story about that debate.)