North End Restaurants May Have To Pay Fee To Keep Outdoor Dining
BOSTON — While outdoor dining in Boston's North End was crucial during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants around the neighborhood may now have to pay a $7,500 fee if they want to keep it up as the weather gets warmer.
Boston's North End neighborhood liaison, John Romano, told the Boston Herald of its plans for the tiny area as the warmer months start to bring back the question of outdoor dining mixed with fitting in parking on the already crowded streets.
Part of that plan included adding a $7,500 fee to restaurants as part of the program to bring back the popular "sidewalk dining." A fee Romano told the Herald is going to North End-specific services like cleaning the streets and sidewalks.
Hanover Street becoming a one-way is another change the neighborhood is looking at making this year, along with agreement and garage plans for the 130 resident parking spots that were lost to patios.
As outdoor dining for the rest of the city gears up to start next month, the North End will have to wait until May with a much shorter season, ending in September instead of December like the rest of Boston.
The North End is also supposed to end outdoor dining 30 minutes before most, Romano said, having restaurants shut it down at either 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. rather than 10:30 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. like the rest of the city.
Sophia Castillo, a bartender, and North End resident, told Patch she thinks the shorter curfew is due to other residents complaining of people being too drunk late at night and making noise and said she worries making Hanover Street a one-way will cause a lot of accidents.
"Restaurants shouldn't have to pay that much, I mean, no one is really winning in this, but that seems excessive," Castillo added.
Romano says the fee "is needed to address immediate impacts in this neighborhood for this program," and is based specifically on costs figured out by the city, the Herald reported.
"It might be cost-prohibitive," the Herald reported Philip Frattaroli of Lucia Ristorante saying when he asked if restaurants could be able to write charitable donations and meal tax from that amount. "$7,500 might mean that we can't even do it."
The Herald reported city officials saying they would mull that question over and get back to him about that
Part of the plan is also to step up the enforcement of outdoor dining rules, saying restaurants who have broken the rules will have to stop outdoor dining on Sept. 5, while ones who followed the can stay until Sept. 30, the Herald reported Romano saying in the virtual meeting.
This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch
