In Los Angeles, nearly 1,300 restaurants have received permits to offer outdoor dining of some kind, including 46 that are setting up in parking spaces. The city is reviewing six applications to shut down a street, officials said.
The changes, rolled out in a matter of weeks, are among the most dramatic in decades for a region that rarely prioritizes pedestrians above the demands of rush-hour traffic. And the changes have been easier to put in place because traffic is far lighter than usual.
Whether Southern California’s expanded outdoor dining scene is a permanent shift, or will evaporate when diners can eat indoors again, is “the million-dollar question,” said Madeline Brozen, the deputy director of UCLA’s Lewis Center.
The pandemic has forced cities and businesses to be more nimble and experimental, she said, and allows them to think about the logistics and trade-offs in real time: “What’s going to bring us more customers? Is it that we have a place to sit outside, or that we have nearby parking?”
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