The Burlington Department of Public Works is piloting a program that puts restaurant seating in an unusual place: converted parking spots.
Street Seats transforms parking spaces in front of select BTV restaurants into outdoor seating, furnished with tables and chairs and separated from street traffic by boxlike enclosures. During business hours, restaurants use the areas, which take up no more than two parking spots each. At all other times, seating is open to the public.
So far, Burlington’s El Cortijo Taqueria is the only restaurant that has installed Street Seats. The city has also approved the Archives and Poco for the program, and Drifter’s participation is in the works.
While the city subsidizes some of the construction fees, each restaurant oversees the installation and maintenance of its seating structure. The DPW will take feedback via a survey, accessed on each structure with a QR code, and email. Public response will determine whether the program continues past the pilot stage, which ends in October.
“We think Street Seats are a visible, effective way to encourage people to come out and enjoy these awesome businesses and enjoy this space,” said Robert Goulding, DPW spokesperson. “It’s summer in downtown Burlington. Where else would you rather be?”
Jed Davis, who owns El Cortijo, hired a contractor to build the structure outside his Bank Street location. “That particular stretch of Bank Street is sort of dominated by the exterior of the parking garage, and we thought that aesthetically it would be a nice addition to the street,” he said. Plus, he noted, it will allow the small restaurant to seat more customers outside.
What about those lost parking spots? Street Seats will take up a mere five of the hundreds of spots in the city, Goulding assured, while maximizing sidewalk space.
“The novelty of this is that we’re continuing to keep the sidewalk wide, robust and accessible to all,” he said. “It allows us to occupy a spot that might have had a car in it for a couple hours, open it up and make it accessible.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Take a Seat”
This article appears in The Cartoon Issue 2019.
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The Archives had theirs installed around 2 days ago. While it states the hours it is for their use on the sign, it’s not readily apparent, so it just always feels like extended seating for businesses. I wouldn’t think to sit there if I wasn’t a patron.
1.) Get rid of a few more spaces.
2.) Make Burlington A Joke.
– Miro’s mayoral policy.
how wonderful…more congestion….maybe they could park diners in a island floating over the continous st paul street constructon- DINING WITH GRIT. downtown has become a place to avoid at all costs.
Instead of seating how about a bike rack for all of the increased bike traffic.
“We think Street Seats are a visible, effective way to encourage people to come out and enjoy these awesome businesses and enjoy this space,” said Robert Goulding, DPW spokesperson. “It’s summer in downtown Burlington. Where else would you rather be?”
I’m really not interested in eating on the street, while inhaling vehicle exhaust fumes.
I’m not sure there was much heavy thinking going on with this. Sure, it’s great to encourage people to come out and enjoy downtown Bumbletown, but when you can’t find any place to park it’s becomes frustrating nonsense. Consider the never ending construction in one parking garage, unavailable mall parking garage and the number of on street parking spots that are restricted with the bags over the meters, or unavailable due to construction and that’s when I’ve elected to just stay home. I can think of two different times I went downtown in an attempt to enjoy some of the Jazz Fest and after trying to find a parking spot for 20 minutes I gave up and went home. The really great move by Bumbletown DPW was the decision to paint crosswalks and do other non-essential work, right during the Jazz Fest, which further restricted parking options and created more needless congestion. Those were two times local restaurants and other businesses didn’t get my business, and that experience negatively impacts my future decisions to consider downtown Bumbletown.
There are so few parking spaces available these days. This seems to be adding to the problem. How about using parking space for … say … parking?!
That idea is a joke! The city keeps taking away parking spaces and with the so far failed city market place parking spaces there should be restored. The mayor is a bumbling idiot as well! I sure as hell wouldn’t want to sit in one of those spaces smelling exhaust fumes from cars and trucks! Church St has enough outdoor dining as is….