Quote of the day

A Michigan planner wrote on an e-list about outdoor/patio dining in commercial districts:

When I was on the city planning staff a few years ago, we rewrote the zoning ordinance to encourage more outdoor dining; they had been considered “temporary uses” and brought a yearly headache for the department as they all tried to get renewals, or didn’t and we had to send out letters. Anyway, it wasn’t the easy sell I assumed it would be—I actually had a city commissioner say, shaking his head, “If we have a whole block full of outdoor cafes, we’d look like Paris or something.”

Yes, and we know what a run-down town that is.

Paris cafe photographs courtesy Philip Greenspun.

L'Ecole Militaire seafood restaurant, Paris.


Cafe de la Paix, Paris

H Street NE, Washington, DC. (Top photo by Inked78.)