Outdoor cafes get promising tryout at Tacoma McMenamins site. Can our sidewalks handle it?
Busy as they get during the warmest months of year, Tacoma sidewalks don’t teem with the same energy as more famous public thoroughfares like the Champs-Élysées in Paris, the French Quarter in New Orleans or even Pioneer Square in Seattle.
Make no mistake: There’s lots of activity spilling onto local sidewalks, from downtown Tacoma to Ruston Way, from the Stadium District to Sixth Avenue.
City officials have to juggle demands for limited space, maintaining order in a labyrinth of street trees, trash receptacles, bike racks and Lime scooters. And most important, they must ensure pedestrians have room to get from Point A to Point B.
But there’s an element missing from Tacoma’s street scene — something that could promote economic development, bring out a cool European vibe and spark a sense of joie de vivre.
Open-air sidewalk cafes.
We’re glad to report the city is now loosening rules and actively engaging business owners to fill this void.
Tacoma recently ended the first phase of an exciting experiment. Since it opened last spring, the McMenamins hotel-restaurant-brewery venture in the old Elks Temple at 565 Broadway had featured an outdoor cafe, which extended onto an iconic section of public right of way.
It wasn’t a sidewalk cafe, per se, but it came close; the tables and chairs occupied a landing on Tacoma’s century-old Spanish Steps, a historic landmark and popular pedestrian link.
The cafe required creative planning with McMenamins, Tacoma City Hall and the state liquor control board. A promising trial run ended Oct. 31; city officials say they expect it to reopen when warmer weather and longer daylight return next spring.
Even better, they want to facilitate and encourage sidewalk cafes in other parts of Tacoma. The Lincoln Business District is an obvious candidate after a multi-million dollar revitalization project brought new streetscapes and pedestrian amenities to South 38th Street a year ago.
City Council member Catherine Ushka can think of other neighborhoods she represents on the East Side and in South Tacoma that could benefit, too. “A few people on the sidewalk having a conversation makes the difference between somebody slowing down and checking it out or going on through to the next neighborhood,” Ushka said at a recent Economic Development Committee meeting. “I’m looking forward to how we can roll this out and remove the barriers.”
About those barriers: Until now, businesses wanting to open regular outdoor seating areas had to install hardened infrastructure to separate themselves from sidewalk traffic. This can be unsightly, confining and expensive; as council member Robert Thoms noted, few small business owners can afford to spend several thousand dollars to put in bolted metal rails for a sidewalk cafe concept in a city where it rains 60 percent of the year.
Using the new McMenamins model, restaurants and bars will now be able to set up tables and chairs behind stickers on the sidewalk — an agile and affordable option.
Certainly the city will have to balance competing right-of-way pressures and carefully monitor for problems, such as reports of public drunkenness or sidewalk access being obstructed; there were a handful of complaints this summer about the McMenamins cafe causing crowds on the Spanish Steps.
Particular care must be taken to protect the rights of disabled persons.
“As our community becomes much more dynamic, we’re trying to place a lot of things in a small area,” said city planning manager Jana Magoon. “It’s a good tension to have, but it is a tension.”
While tradeoffs are inevitable, expanding Tacoma’s sidewalk cafe experiment is a superb way for City Hall to support local business owners who sometimes feel overregulated and underappreciated.
Adding a cosmopolitan feel to the local street scene can’t hurt, either.