We, the owners of Ice Cream Alley, would like to ask Mayor Roxann Wedegartner to reinstate outdoor dining in parking spaces in downtown Greenfield. As a business, we’ve made it our mission to make Main Street more beautiful, welcoming, vibrant, and fun, and the elimination of outdoor dining in parking spaces makes it much harder for us to accomplish this. In contrast, reinstating this program works toward the goals that the city laid out in its 2014 master plan, and aligns with the emphatic recommendations of the downtown parking study that concluded this month.
Like many other cities, Greenfield introduced outdoor dining in parking spaces in 2020 as a way to help food-service businesses during the pandemic. Over the following three summers, we continually improved our outdoor space, creating a green, pedestrian-friendly oasis in a downtown that is mostly paved and car-oriented. Undoubtedly, expanded outdoor seating helped to keep our business afloat during the pandemic.
After several years of experience, we believe that the outdoor seating area that we maintained in two parking spaces represented a win for this community. It provided a clean, social space for local residents, families, and tourists that was shielded from the street and safe for children and pets. It provided people a place to go so that they were not left milling around on the sidewalk obstructing the public way. It encouraged foot traffic, which showcased neighboring businesses. It calmed car traffic, broke up an extended stretch of asphalt, and added visual character to the city. We’re continuing to offer to compensate the city for costs associated with setup and maintenance, so these wins could be zero-cost for taxpayers.
In discontinuing on-street outdoor dining, the city reasoned that it was awaiting the results of the ongoing research of a consulting group, Stantec, which was conducting a study of downtown parking in the spring. In mid-June, Stantec presented their findings, noting that “overall parking supply significantly outweighs demand at any time” and that, even during the peak time, a maximum of 55% of parking spaces downtown are in use.
When asked whether outdoor dining in parking spaces was among the study’s recommendations, a senior principal at Stantec, responded: “Absolutely. Absolutely. […] So many communities have made that permanent as a result of learning about it during COVID. Are you kidding me? Yes. So much more valuable than one or two parking spaces. It’s not even a question.” The communities he’s referring to include nearby cities like Amherst, Northampton, and Easthampton.
Indeed, the study recommends a reduction in the space allocated for parking “to allow for more space for bike infrastructure, wider sidewalks, landscaped area, [and] other amenity space (e.g., outdoor dining area).” These recommendations align perfectly with the vision of Greenfield’s master plan, as on-street outdoor dining helps create “a vibrant, dynamic, walkable downtown” that is “safe, […] accessible, and pedestrian/bicycle friendly” and that has “safe, efficient, and attractive travel corridors” (pp. 76, 106–7). Maintaining on-street outdoor dining in the long-term is a small step, with nominal costs, that the city could take to pursue its goal to “nurture existing and new business owners” (p. 104).
In light of the findings of the parking study, we’re asking that the mayor’s office reinstate and expand outdoor dining in parking spaces permanently. Of course we want this because it’s good for our business, but more importantly we want it because it’s good for Greenfield as a whole. We live here, we love downtown enough to invest in it, and we want to see it continue to transform into an economically and socially thriving space that’s welcoming for neighbors, tourists, entrepreneurs, and folks of all ages and backgrounds.
If you agree that these goals are worth pursuing, and if you want to live in a city with more street life and more outdoor dining options, please let Mayor Wedegartner know.
Beth Diamond, Tim Dolan, Bryan Dolan, and Dan Khan are co-owners of Ice Cream Alley.