Last week, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed an extension of permits for the Café Streets program through May 2022. This program has allowed small businesses to convert adjacent street parking and parking strips into seating and vending space.
Seattle City Councilmembers Dan Strauss (who represents District #6, which includes Fremont,) and Lorena Gonzalez (candidate for Seattle Mayor,) passed legislation to extend the free and simple permits process through May 2022. This can encourage more businesses to make use of this expanded outdoor space, and to invest in creating improved and more aesthetic facilities. Councilmembers Gonzalez and Strauss also included language directing the Seattle Department of Transportation to look at making such use of public street space permanent.
The City of Seattle has allowed businesses to build sidewalk cafes and shopping areas on the streets as an attempt to create safer, open-air, less-COVID-transmissible options for stores and restaurants. As the population is vaccinated and the pandemic ends, these spaces can become enhancements to our neighborhood – or impediments to public parking, and passing, options.
Please shop local to support our small businesses, and let our City Council and Mayor know how the Café Streets program does, or does not, build up our community.