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In vino veritas. That’s Latin for, “If you get people talking about the outdoor seating at a wine bar, pretty soon they’ll say how they really feel about COVID patios.” Last week, WW reported on the plight of Living Room Wines, a business that spent $11,000 on a covered wooden deck to replace two parking spaces on North Lombard Street—only to learn that the Portland Bureau of Transportation had wrongly authorized the street seats on what is, in fact, a state highway. PBOT has offered to refund the $1,000 cost of the permit and suggested moving the structure to the sidewalk (“Red Red Tape,” WW, May 14). Responses to the story quickly veered into disdain for the road-drinking phenomenon more generally. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Ronzilla, via Twitter: “PBOT is one of the worst city agencies. They should never have approved something for a road they don’t control. PBOT does this kind of thing all the time; planting trees with no plan to keep them alive, creating barriers that limit access on major streets, etc. They suck.”
Seems2Me, via wweek.com: “Taxpayers cannot trust the word of the staff who are paid to enforce the codes? If they lack the necessary expertise, if taxpayers must hire attorneys in order to have confidence in the codes, let’s shut the code enforcement office down. We need to fire all of the staff taxpayers mistakenly believe are paid the big bucks because of their expertise. (SMH they don’t even know what is city property and what is state property.)”
George McCleary, via Facebook: “PBOT may be the worst division of Portland city government, and that’s a real battle of the bureaucratic bottom dwellers.
“Refund their construction costs, permit fees, and pay punitive damages. PBOT makes 3x that amount with one LTIC fee.”
7 Bad Words, via wweek.com: “When I think about where to settle in and have a nice glass of pinot, I think to myself...‘On a wooden pallet. On the side of a busy state highway. At a major intersection. Across from a bus stop.’”
Lucky of the Manwolfs, via wweek.com: “The bus exhaust fumes are meant to cleanse the palate between snob sips.”
Brian Borrello, via Facebook: “Change Lombard to Columbia as freight route and designated state highway (not yet done because of underpass height under railway in Kenton)—make Lombard safe, get the big trucks off it, make it people friendly.”
RabidBlackSquirrel, via Reddit: “So many of those COVID shanty patios look extremely unsafe too. Most give no consideration to load transfer, wind shear, materials selection, whatever. Especially now that they’ve been in the elements for a couple years, so many of these need to be torn down. I love patios, and especially when you see other cities, especially in Europe, that do them well and have for a long time, we should adopt similar permanent processes and standards and get these emergency scenario shacks replaced.”OldFlumpy, in reply: “I’ve enjoyed my time in COVID patios, though a drink or two is required to help me believe that I won’t get squashed by a bus while dining.
“You’re right that many were shoddily constructed, 2020 was a real ‘anything goes’ moment, and there were definitely opportunists who took advantage. Seems like the worst shelters are gone now.”
NoPo Resident, via wweek.com: “The COVID shacks are all ugly and need to go. Mississippi Avenue looks like a shanty town.
“Portland has gone back to its pattern of hanging on to things that the rest of the country has moved on from.”
maxi curls, via Reddit: “The government basically forced restaurants to build these things in order to survive during the pandemic in the face of their hyperaggressive health measures.
“A case could be made that the businesses who were lucky enough to survive that ordeal (most with incredible amounts of new debt) should be forced to take them down now.
“A case could also be made that the government—especially in Oregon—owes every one of these restaurants sums in the mid six figures. If I was any of these businesses, I wouldn’t give an inch unless I was literally about to be arrested. ‘The government made me build this shit. They can fucking buy it from me if they want it gone.’”
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