
Photo by Mary O’KEEFE
By Mary O’KEEFE
The City of Glendale has finally installed the long awaited parklets along Honolulu Avenue in the Montrose Shopping Park.
This has been a long time coming after a gesture that began as a helping hand during the pandemic for restaurants and their patrons.
Los Angeles County Public Health, which includes the City of Glendale and Montrose, ordered restaurants closed in mid-March 2020. Restaurants then went through a series of guidelines that would allow only pickup and delivery of food, then dining rooms reopened, then shut their door, then outdoor dining was allowed, then it wasn’t, and finally indoor and outdoor dining was allowed; however, then the extremely contagious omicron variant struck and many restaurants that had been struggling to hire and retain employees had to close again because so many of their workers tested positive for the virus.
To say it has been a struggle for all businesses would be an understatement; but for restaurants it was a questions of what guidelines were in effect day-to-day.
One of the small lights in the COVID tunnel was outdoor dining. The City of Glendale voted immediately to help their restaurant businesses by offering al fresco dining. Areas were blocked off with K-rails to establish outdoor dining areas and although the concept was new to everyone all worked together to help each other other.
The surprise was how many residents and visitors to Montrose and downtown Glendale, along with other areas like Pasadena and Burbank, really liked the al fresco option. It was refreshing to see people filling up the outdoor dining areas in places like Montrose. The normally quiet town, especially during the pandemic, was bustling with walkers and diners. But the al fresco design was always a temporary fix and the Glendale City Council voted to end the program and remove the K-rails in October 2021. In Montrose, the Montrose Shopping Park Association wanted this to happen even earlier, by September.
The parklets occupied 30 parking spaces in Montrose. The use of the existing parking spaces made parking for retail stores even less available along Honolulu Avenue.
The City had been exploring a more permanent solution to al fresco dining and in May 2021 City officials surveyed residents and business owners to ask about their al fresco experiences and their thoughts of making the parklets a long-term feature. The survey received 1,145 respondents, with 51% of those coming from La Crescenta and Montrose and 14%, or 160, of the responses from business owners.
With more than 75% of business respondents being retail merchants, officials were surprised to find that more than 74% of business respondents, including more than half of all retail merchants, supported making the parklets a long-term fixture. They were joined by an overwhelming majority of 82% of residents who wanted to see the program extended. The results echoed similar findings in other regional cities, such as Pasadena and Burbank, both of which extended their parklet programs.
With overwhelming support for extending the program, City of Glendale officials began to discuss the budget, timeline and design features for more permanent parklet installations. The temporary parklets were originally scheduled for removal due to a request by the MSPA just prior to Labor Day and the Montrose Shopping Park Association car show. Outcry from local restaurateurs led the city to delay removal until October. MSPA board members stated they needed the parking spaces open for vendors and food trucks at the Arts & Crafts Fair planned for October 2021.
The City, joined by MSPA and a representative from the Montrose restaurant community, formed a committee to discuss the designs for the new permanent al fresco dining. They reached an agreement and the installations began this week.
CVW will follow this story and provide updates; but for now it is time to meet with friends at local favorite restaurants and enjoy the option of indoor and outdoor seating.