As part of the city's Shared Spaces program, restaurants and bars across San Francisco have filed requests for at least 42 street closures, reports Eater.
The program was launched in May by Mayor London Breed to allow establishments to operate through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic beyond take-out and delivery.
Requests filed by restaurants vary from the addition of table and chairs on the sidewalk, to expanding their footprint into parking spots to full street closures.
According to San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management (DEM), as of Monday, there were 42 requests for full street closures across the city, but not all of these requests will be approved. The DEM warns, emphasizing that there’s “a process of internal review and public notification that must be followed.”
A spokesperson from the DEM told Eater that “The goal is to ensure the public has an opportunity to provide input and raise concerns, while respecting the need to limit interactions due to the pandemic, and city agencies are “pursuing a flexible approach for community notification — more or less based on the nature and impact of the request and past experience with closures by the same entities for the same locations.”
Elsewhere in the Bay Area Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Jose are all in the process of enacting street closure programs for outdoor dining.
The list of the 42 San Francisco streets that may be closed includes North Beach's Columbus Avenue, from Grant Avenue to Vallejo Street; Haight Street from Shrader Street to Stanyan Street; Octavia Street from Hayes Street to Ivy Street and two portions of Valencia Street.