Outdoor dining, sidewalk activities likely to become permanent part of downtown Raleigh landscape

Expanded outdoor dining and curbside pick-up, which became commonplace during the pandemic, may soon become permanent features in downtown Raleigh.

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance surveyed more than 1,000 residents and spoke with city staff, business owners and employees about how best to continue using outdoor spaces downtown. The group presented its findings to the City Council on Tuesday, showing that a majority of residents want to continue using the "public realm" for more dining and activities.

Bill King, president and chief executive of Downtown Raleigh Alliance, defined the "public realm" as "that space between our buildings."

"It's our streets, our sidewalks, our plazas, our parks," King said.

During the pandemic, when restaurants were prohibited from or faced severe restrictions on serving people indoors, many set up tables in all of those areas to remain in business. People enjoyed the change, and Raleigh officials said they would like to keep it going.

"We want to see people come downtown, re-engage with downtown and have those outdoor seating extensions that add to the vibrancy of our downtown community," said Whitney Schoenfeld, Raleigh's emergency management and special events coordinator. "What the DRA got from the community input, it matches where we are headed."

City officials said only 21 public parking spaces have been lost to the expanded outdoor dining options. Officials plan to continue waiving permit fees associated with outdoor dining and other activities though at least 2022.

After a year of the downtown looking more like a ghost down, local retailers said the effort to expand uses in the public realm will draw more people back.

"I see this as a silver lining for what we went through last year," said Pam Blondin, owner of DECO Raleigh, a gift shop on Salisbury Street. "It's too bad that it took a pandemic to get us to take some of these risks, but I'm really glad that it did."

The City Council referred the study to its Economic Development and Innovation Committee, where some of the initiatives could be funded.