Here's what a Brazilian restaurant owner did after city hall banned sidewalk patio tables
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33333666
I love malicious compliance with car-centric rules 😎
The problem is on-street parking. Removing it would easily allow for plenty of space for pedestrians and businesses.
Yup. They blocked off 2 blocks in a very pedestrian popular area downtown near me, people love it. Restaurants expanded into the street a little, live music, etc. really made it very nice
This looks more fun than just sitting on the side of the road
But. They can drive the trucks with the customers away at any moment.
I think that's part of the plan though right? If they spot a compliance officer walking up, they can drive the patio around the block a bit until he's gone.
Fuck these people. Sidewalks are for fucking walking, not for extra space for your stupid fucking restaurant.
"I'll just take over the entire sidewalk with tables and chairs!" - Asshole
Eh its hardly a one size fits all case. These companies employ and pay community taxes as well as a host of others. If it is feasible they should be allowed to do this. Get rid of the parking after 5pm and put out seating. Sidewalk is free and there is extra space.
Tbh I love when restaurants have huge outside patio, courtyard spaces.
In some places here in Sweden, restaurants with sidewalk tables have an extra "lane" for pedestrians installed in parallel over the side of the street, like a protected boardwalk
In my village in France they close the main street in the evening and weekend for restaurants and bars to put their table there.
I love it
We can get rid of the parking spots and put the side walks there while ahopa can use the space outside their shop for whatever they see fit. It's good for communities to have people out and doing things, not just shoved away inside somewhere.
Get rid of the parking, sure. Extend the footpath/sidewalk into that space, sure. But the footpath/sidewalk outside their shop is publicly-owned, it's not private property. Will the shopkeepers commit to keeping clean and tidy? Will they commit to maintaining it (cracks in concrete, trip hazards, etc), or is that still the council's job? I don't think they should get to use it for free, or without some sort of commitment to maintain it.
Extra free floor space. Or do those cafes and restaurants pay some sort of permit fee?
Because I hate pedestrian bottlenecks caused by cafe tables on the footpath. Even worse when groups of tourists stop walking right there to stare at the menu and discuss whether to have lunch there or somewhere else. Move aside, please. Not all of us are on holidays.
Stupid laws demand crazy solutions. Good job!
It's not stupid if it blocks pedestrians from using the sidewalk. I mean, imagine putting them tables all across the road for cars... I think this is a creative and good solution for everybody.
Yes, but the title sounds like all "sidewalk patio tables" were banned, not just some particular one in a narrow place. But that's modern journalism -- the title might be whatever they feel is more click-baity.
At least one of the pictures looks like they parked on parking spots not on the sidewalk so I'm totally cool with them doing it tbh.
Keeping shit off the sidewalk doesn't seem very car centric to me, hell, damn near the opposite.
We have one of these in Prague
If they’re willing to risk, along with the customers, to have folks get off that flat bed after some alcohol consumption, go for it. Keep the sidewalk for foot traffic, neighborhood kids playing and older folks to get around without obstacles.
This is a humble neighborhood with working class folks, in a typically hot and humid environment with limited or zero AC, and they probably have small apartments so you need these comfortable options to chill and enjoy time with friends and family after busting your ass working all month. I see this as a win for everyone.
older folks to get arround without obstacles
Bro has not seen a Brazilian sidewalk, there are light posts in the middle of it, and the owners of the buildings are responsible for maintaining it, so every 10 meters there is a giant step and some rough terrain. Brazil has horrible urban planning and walkability, the city hall decision just sounds like carbrain to me. "The sidewalk is small so we will push people indoors" Why is the sidewalk small in the first place?
I haven’t been to all of Brasil and you’re right, sidewalks come in all shapes and sides. Or non existent. My theory on why sidewalks are small in some cities is that local governments make the streets too wide for trucks to pass.
Now I want to see taco trucks where you get on the truck and eat tacos while they tour the city or something.
Don't know Brazilian law, but here distributing alcohol to that platform would be illegal.
Can restaurants sell alcohol as a takeaway in Brazil? If so, it would be hard to forbid that, unless you have a law about drinking in public outside restaurant premises.
Not Brazilian. But as someone who has had the privilege to travel around in the past, the US was the only country I visited that had these super strict Puritan Alcohol laws.
Liquor licensing for restaurants is a think in many places in the world. So are building codes.
There might be some very good reasons for not allowing restaurants to arbitrarily setup chairs on raised platforms with no railings above concrete and then serve liquor up there.
This is a TBI waiting to happen.
I think many countries have those laws, whether or not they’re strictly enforced.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_in_public
Also depends on where in the US. Bourbon street? Las Vegas? Atlantic City? Go for it. It’s also one of those things where it’s an unspoken rule. Community concert on the green? Just don’t have an open beer, put it into a cup and people will care less and it’s hard for cops to say anything.
It’s certainly strange, but I think the issue here is cops being more militaristic, especially against those they think they can get an easy arrest, rather than our country being the only one with drinking in public laws.
I'm Brazilian, and I'll say I have no idea what a "take away"alcohol purchase means. Here you can open the can inside the market, drink it as you purchase as long as you pay it on the way out. Never heard of any laws against drinking in public, only about selling alcohol to minors and drunk driving
Brazilian here.
It's legal to sell alcohol as takeway and its legal to drink outside of public restaurant premises.
From the top of my head the only place that isnt allowed to sell alcohol is in football stadiums in some states. Some can still sell it but only in plastic cups.
I don't really see a problem (aside from some drunk person falling off the platform while trying to go to the bathroom) in this solution. This could very well be in place as a permanent solution to this pub.
It's a bit of an ass move to block that horribly small sidewalk though.
Yeh, but why is the sidewalk small in the first place? (Not attacking you, but you know what I mean)
Yes because car-centric design suck, and i live in one. Which kinda makes sidewalk more precious for pedestrian, especially for people with handicap.