The future of San Francisco's cozy parklets that popped up outside restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic is up in the air as the city's Board of Supervisors considers making them permanent.
Mayor London Breed on Tuesday explained that she has a Plan B if her legislation doesn’t make it through City Hall's red tape, a staple when it comes to doing business in San Francisco. The mayor has proposed reforms to cut bureaucracy and separate legislation that would make the restaurant parklet Shared Spaces program permanent.
She’s frustrated with the Board of Supervisors committee considering her legislation.
"When they tried to butcher my legislation and water it down and make it even more difficult and complicated so businesses continue to struggle and have difficultly doing business in San Francisco, that's when I take a different sort of action," the mayor said on Tuesday.
She said if her proposed reforms don't make it through the legislative process, she’ll put them on the ballot and let the voters decide.
"I just really want certainty," said Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. "We all have PTSD from this past year. They were like, 'Close your restaurants, open your restaurants, close your restaurants.'"
"For every parking space that people are seating, it's one to two or even up to four jobs," Thomas added.
Opponents of the permanent parklet proposal have expressed concerns about sidewalk access for people with disabilities, among other things.
The Board of Supervisors will continue that hearing in two weeks.
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