This Monday, the D.C. council removed proposed legislation that would have allowed restaurants to apply for extended outdoor seating. Unfortunately, it only had the support of three council members, Mary Cheh, Charles Allen and Brianne Nadeau, and was pulled from the Covid-19 emergency legislation.
This legislation is what the D.C. restaurant scene needed to start recovering from months of closure. Instead, they will open with reduced dining room seating, no bar access and a customer base unwilling to go inside. Also, many people in the service industry no longer have jobs. Extensive restrictions on restaurants will prevent restaurants bringing all former employees back. The great outdoors were calling! U, H, 14th and other streets were begging to be shut down, allowing the dinning rooms to spill out on to them. People would feel more comfortable visiting their favorite haunts with spaced-out outdoor seating. And the increase in business would have helped restaurants get back on their feet. Unfortunately, D.C. seems unwilling to see this as an added benefit for the city. They incorrectly assume the worst about outdoor drinking, or are unwilling on taking on the challenge of governing all this new outdoor seating.
It is not like outdoor restaurants are a new idea, but D.C. does not have any sort of pedestrian paradise or great plaza that other cities can claim. And the city deserves the opportunity for proper outdoor restaurants.