“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help!”

Remember the halcyon days of 2020 and 2021, in which Philadelphia, among most major cities, allowed restaurants which had been otherwise closed to indoor dining, to expand, where they physically could, to outdoor dining facilities? A challenging problem in a city which experiences severe winters, outdoor dining and increased carry-out ordering enabled many restaurants to survive.

Philly quietly added surprise fees and ‘burdensome’ rules for restaurant streeteries

“It’s a bureaucratic mess,” said Councilmember Allan Domb. “This is basically the administration saying ‘we don’t want outdoor seating.’”

by Max Marin | Tuesday, Match 1, 2022

Philadelphia city officials quietly released regulations governing the city’s new streetery law after months of anticipation, and some restaurant owners say the proposed red tape could spell doomsday for outdoor dining across the city.

Many restaurant owners realized new rules passed by City Council in December would require them to clean up access-blocking patio structures and get designs approved by the city for outdoor dining structures built over parking spaces.

But in implementing that law, Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration is adding new regulations that create significant and unexpected hurdles for restaurateurs still struggling to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s a lot more at the Philadelphia Inquirer original, but the new regulations all boil down to one thing: the city charging more money, for permits, for bonds, and for construction requirements.

The timeline:

• March 16, 2020: City orders all non-essential businesses closed
• September 8, 2020: Indoor dining allowed at a maximum of 25% of seating capacity
• November 20, 2020: City again bans all indoor dining in restaurants
• January 16, 2021: City again allows indoor dining at a maximum of 25% of seating capacity
• June 2, 2021: City removes seating capacity restrictions
• August 12, 2021: City imposes mask mandates for all indoor businesses
• January 3, 2022: City requires proof of vaccination for all restaurant employees and patrons
• February 16, 2022: City drops vaccination proof requirements, continued mask mandate up until yesterday

All of these restrictions were either imposed or relaxed as the city saw surges in COVID-19 infections, the original, the Delta variant, and lastly, the Xi Omicron variant. Omicron peaked very rapidly, and with a far greater number of cases, than either Alpha or Delta, with more than thrice the average number of daily cases in Philly — because vaccinations and masks were virtually useless against Omicron — but one thing is obvious: if COVID-19 has been going through all of these mutations, there is no particular reason to think that Omicron will be the last. The odds are that there will be a Pi variant — though maybe some will call it the Putin variant, given today’s news — which may or may not be serious, but if another serious variant arises, wouldn’t the availability of outdoor dining be something Philadelphia would want?

Even without a new variant, there are still plenty of people panicked by COVID-19, and would choose to dine outdoors if the option is available. Given that the city thought that masks were still necessary indoors but not outside up until yesterday, why wouldn’t the city want to encourage the continuation of outdoor dining where feasible?

But nope! The city are going to go for the dollars rather than make it easier for the outdoor dining areas to continue. There’s a reason why, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” is dismissed as a skeptical meme.
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