Could open streets save our restaurants and bars?

Covid-19 has severally affected the hospitality industry with most bars and restaurants now closed. At some stage, we need to work out how we can let these businesses safely reopen. I came across a video that proposes a solution – open streets.

In simple terms, it means having more outdoors areas for restaurants and bars. Customers will be uncomfortable sitting inside; they will be more relaxed sitting outside in the fresh air. The chances of catching the virus outside are dramatically lower. If you ever visit any European cities, you will know outdoor seating is the default for a lot of places.

In Belfast, we have several places that currently offer outdoor seating. St Annes Square, Bank Square (Kellys Cellars), The Duke Of York, Henry Joys, The Beer Garden in the Sunflower etc.

The main thing that kills outdoor entertainment is cars; you can’t enjoy a meal with some car spewing out diesel fumes next to you. We need to look at what areas we can pedestrianise and how we can better use outdoor space for seating. Let’s take Botanic Avenue, for example. If we follow Jonathan’s plan to pedestrianise it, we can utilise the existing parking spots for outdoor seating.

Trees, planters and outdoor seating for 18 – All accomplished by eliminating one parking spot! https://t.co/RFXDz9ftNg pic.twitter.com/7gTpsFP9Lt

— Business Districts (@bizdistricts) March 28, 2017

This would dramatically transform the area into a calmer, more people-friendly place to visit. You could even have variable pedestrianisation, with access for deliveries at certain hours. You may have seen those steel bollards around that are timed to go up and door at different parts of the day.

The only flaw in my plan is what you do about toilets? If you have been to any outdoor concerts or races in the last few years, you might have seen these four man open-air urinals. They work well, and I am sure you could tidy up the look of them with some strategically placed plants. A few of these about Botanic would cover the whole area. I am open to suggestions about how to accommodate the ladies?

I also think the councils have rules around outdoor seating, but I am sure they could be changed.

The other issue with bars is that as people get drunker, they lose their wits and social distancing goes out the window. Bars will need to get their security staff to be on the lookup for troublemakers and deal with them promptly. Also, you could have an 11 pm closing time. I think as a society, we need to get out of the habit of going out very late; we need to change practices to going out in the day or early evening. It does not make sense for bars to be sitting empty most of the evening only to have a mad rush from 11 pm – 1 am.

But it gets a bit cold? We have a very mild climate, and before the shutdown, places like the Duke of York and Henry Joys had hundreds of people happily standing outside. And it does not rain as much as we think.

I used Botanic Avenue as an example, but we can apply the same principles to other areas of the city and other towns around Northern Ireland. The Cathedral Quarter is already mostly pedestrianised so it could quite easily accommodate a lot of these ideas.

Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon; we need to come up with imaginative solutions for the new normal. Open streets is an idea that could save our hospitality industry.

Photo by Free-Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.