CicLAvia Helping Restaurants Keep Outdoor Dining

Long before the pandemic made outdoor dining a necessity and "slow streets" a widespread concept, residents of Los Angeles had the opportunity to experience their city without cars through a series of events called CicLAvia. Inspired by Bogota's Ciclovia program, the L.A. version "created pop-up events in L.A. for people to walk, bike, or skate through the city on closed roads." Olivia Richard, writing in LAist, reports on how the nonprofit is using its experience to help restaurateurs make outdoor dining permanent.

"[T]he organization is teaming up with the city of L.A. to help make permanent the al fresco dining program that was launched during the pandemic" and "has been steadily working to assist restaurant owners who are shifting to outdoor dining, but don’t have experience in utilizing outdoor space for that purpose." Despite concerns on the part of restaurant owners about the cost and labor required to implement outdoor dining, says Rachel Burke, director of production for CicLAvia, "It's pretty easy to take this space and use it for something other than cars."

Despite concerns about reduced parking, restaurants on "slow streets" have experienced economic benefits during the past year. As pandemic restrictions wind down, cities will have to decide whether to keep their outdoor dining and slow streets programs in place.