Vancouver City Council approves permanent patio program
 

Patios will become a permanent, recurring fixture of Vancouver’s streetscape, following Vancouver City Council’s unanimous decision Wednesday morning.

The Temporary Expedited Patio Program (TEPP) first launched in June 2020 as an urgent measure to help support struggling restaurants from strict indoor dining capacity restrictions will transition into a permanent program, following its repeated proven success and popularity with both businesses and the general public.

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Daily Hive

I don't really see this being a surprise, given the reputation for "temporary" projects routinely becoming permanent. Weather or not however it will remain popular post-COVID when dine-in restrictions are gone is the real test.

Hope you like parking on side street- oh right. Hope you like parking in parking lo- oh right. Well at least nothing stops you from walking a few blocks. ;)

I don't think you can argue that patios in the place of parked cars immensely improve the downtown for pedestrians and restaurant patrons. Vancouver has beautiful summers, and far too many downtown restaurants don't have space for traditional patios on the sidewalk. A lively patio with sexy food is pretty good advertising too.

The debate is obviously around whether replacing each curbside parking spot with two dining tables is beneficial from a financial perspective, considering the displaced parking spots (theoretically) make it harder to get to the restaurant in the first place.

Arguably, if you can afford to go to a popular restaurant that's not in your neighbourhood, if you can't be bothered to park a few blocks away and walk, then you can afford an Uber. Probably means you can have a drink too, and not worry about drink-driving home.

I have no problem with main street car spots being removed so that restaurant patios can go in their place. Main Street, for example, has a much more lively, convivial feel now that so many eclectic patios have been established. Those old parking spots allowed *one* carload* (usually just 1 or maybe 2 people) to take up that same amount of space. It's just like knocking down SFHs to replace them with condos, in popular locations. Use that space better.

You can't even call it a cash grab - $2,800/year is a net loss compared to $2/hour for two parking spaces over that same year.

The obvious counterpoint being that a couple of cars deliver a maximum of ten people to the venue (usually just 2-5), whereas a patio allows for up to twenty.

Depends on the road. Many of the spots I've seen are in 2hr zones, not paid parking areas.

It's a welcome change IMO.