67 North End restaurants apply for outdoor dining
After weeks of dueling press conferences, shouted “Godfather” lines and vows of lawsuits over the ability to sling chicken parm outside without paying a fee, the number of North End restaurants that ended up applying for outdoor dining ended up approaching last year’s pre-fee total.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration said Tuesday that 67 of the old Italian neighborhood’s restaurants applied to be part of the outdoor-dining program, which for the first time this year includes a North End-only $7,500 fee to go toward services in the neighborhood.
That’s in comparison to the 77 that the city said participated last year, when there was no fee for them.
When the city suddenly announced this new rule a couple of months ago, frustration among the restaurateurs boiled over, leading several of them to vow a lawsuit that has not at this point materialized.
A group of the restaurant owners began protesting the mayor, joining forces with the already existing group of people demonstrating at her house and City Hall over city vaccine policy.
Wu then said the city would allow for “hardship waivers” based on size of the restaurant and location in the neighborhood, potentially dropping the fee by a few thousand dollars for certain restaurants.
Wu rolled that out in a press conference with some administration-friendly
North End restaurant owners, hoping this was an offer the rest couldn’t refuse. Wu’s administration said the fee in the first place came in response to North End residents pushing back against the clutter and noise of outdoor dining over the past couple of years.
But the reaction to the closed-door press conference was spicy, with the anti-Wu restaurant owners shouting an inverted version of the famous “Godfather” line: “It’s business and it’s personal.”
The anti-Wu side then held its own press conference again, continuing to vow a lawsuit over alleged discrimination and saying the changes weren’t welcome.
Ultimately, Wu’s office said Tuesday, 28 of the 67 applications came with hardship waivers, and the city granted 23 of them.
“These applications are in various stages of review and City staff are actively working to approve these applications in time for the program’s May 1 start date,” the administration said. “We are looking forward to a safe and vibrant outdoor dining season in the North End and the rest of the City. The Mayor and City staff are grateful for the continued partnership of the North End’s residents and business owners.”