FWC Open Letter In Response to Restaurant and Retail Reopening Assistance
May 14, 2020
Dear Mayor Snyder, City Manager Jennings, and Portland City Council Members:
The Friends of Woodfords Corner appreciates the efforts that the City is making to ease retail and dining outdoor permitting costs and restrictions for our local businesses. It is an important step to reinvigorating our local economy, getting our residents back to work, and keeping our city vibrant. We want to thank everyone from the City who has made this a priority and worked so expediently to create and communicate about the plan.
We fully support expanding outdoor vending options as much as possible to help small businesses throughout the city bounce back from the financial strain of the pandemic and provide their much-needed services to our community, all while abiding by the state social distancing requirements. However, we feel that the Proposed Strategy and Guidelines for Restaurant and Retail Reopening Assistance do not go far enough to help our local business owners reopen their doors and make ends meet in 2020.
The guidelines appear to have a narrow geographic scope, and do not take into account the economic and outdoor infrastructure challenges that Portland businesses face outside of the Downtown and Old Port. The suggested on-peninsula neighborhood street closures – and the innate walkability of those areas – will naturally drive foot traffic and patrons to support outdoor and indoor retailers and restaurants in those areas, benefiting businesses who have the space and funds to pay for expanded outdoor permits, as well as the businesses in that area who don’t. For many businesses located off-peninsula, it will be a much greater struggle to resume their positive financial impact without a greater easement of outdoor permitting fees and restrictions.
In Woodfords Corner, like in many smaller village hubs in the city, there is no safe and affordable way for business owners to take advantage of outdoor dining or retail sidewalk space and abide by the distancing requirements issued by Governor Mills. Even the new sidewalks on Forest Avenue and surrounding streets, while ADA compliant, could not accommodate a 6-foot social distance requirement for diners and the pedestrians traveling on sidewalks. Paying the $1,092 permit fee to operate a parklet, muchless purchasing the materials and infrastructure to create one, is simply not feasible for the many businesses that have taken a hard hit over the past two months. This leaves business owners without a choice but to use only indoor space this season, and cut their dining and retail capacity to a fraction of what it has been.
The Friends of Woodfords Corner Board of Directors implores the City to consider further easing permitting fees, in the name of fairness and equity for off-peninsula businesses and those businesses whose sidewalk space does not safely accommodate the state distancing requirements, in the following ways:
Waive the permitting fee for seasonal outdoor dining and retail to allow businesses to serve more patrons and abide by the state social distance requirements.
Fully waive the parklet fee for the use of parking spaces directly in front of businesses who choose to use their sidewalks for dining/retail. Even if businesses only use sidewalk space for dining or retail, pedestrians may use the parking spaces to keep their distance from business patrons.
Our diverse local businesses play a major part in the health of Portland’s economy and our community. We ask that the City make it as financially easy as possible for our small businesses to resume serving their communities and making the positive economic impact on our city and state.
Respectfully,
Friends of Woodfords Corner Board of Directors