TROY — With spring’s arrival imminent, alarm fluttered recently among restaurant owners who feared the city’s lack of clear guidance so far this year about the rules for expanded sidewalk dining might indicate a plan to roll back what is allowed to pre-pandemic levels. The concern proved unfounded, but the eagerness among owners for reassurance indicates the excitement with which outdoor dining downtown is viewed.
More outside tables — sometimes extending over the full width of the sidewalk, with pedestrian traffic rerouted to blocked-off space previously reserved for curbside parking — was considered a lifeline for restaurants when indoor dining was still banned during the beginning of the first summer of the pandemic, and it was widely embraced by customers throughout 2021 and last year as well.
Albany’s Common Council permanently adopted expanded sidewalk dining rules in April of last year. Restaurants that used the whole sidewalk, on areas including Madison Avenue near Lark Street and upper Madison by its confluence with Western Avenue, intend to take advantage of the allowance again as soon as warmer weather prevails, representatives said Wednesday.
Saratoga Springs last year formalized a program for expanded sidewalk dining in the downtown core as part of a three-year process. Under it, proposals are overseen by the city’s Design Review Commission to make sure plans comport with historic-district rules, and options are being identified for a uniform barrier system around seating that is more aesthetically pleasing than simple concrete dividers, said Dillon Moran, the city’s commissioner of accounts, who is leading the planning.
Schenectady requires a permit for what it calls sidewalk cafes, but details of the program and whether it changed as a result of the pandemic were unclear Wednesday. A message left with City Hall seeking clarification was unreturned.
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