PORTLAND, Ore. — The city of Portland wants to help businesses and restaurants maintain social distancing standards when Multnomah County is given permission to enter Phase 1 of the state's reopening plan.
"For some restaurants, that six feet of spacing is really not going to work for the layout of their restaurants, especially the smaller restaurants," Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation on Thursday released its latest plans that would allow restaurants and businesses to apply for free permits to utilize public rights of way for expanded seating options or for customers to wait in a queue.
"We've heard from numerous business owners and advocate groups that they're really wanting something like this," Eudaly said.
David Louie, owner of Huber's Cafe in downtown Portland, has been waiting for this.
"It'll allow us to seat more guests and more guests equals more revenue," Louie said.
The plan is the second phase of the city's Safe Streets Initiative. During the first phase, 100 miles of public greenways was limited to through traffic only to make walking and biking safer while being able to maintain a safe distance from others.
Restaurants would normally pay for an outdoor dining permit to be able to put tables and chairs on the sidewalks. Commissioner Eudaly said the city would most likely waive that fee for these purposes.
There are four ways streets could be impacted under the Safe Streets - Healthy Business plan. Parking spaces could be turned into dining areas.
Mini neighborhood plazas would partially block a street or a driving lane.
Finally, on smaller streets, a full shutdown of the street might happen.
PBOT says no street that uses transit or is an emergency route will be impacted.
"This is going to be helpful for some businesses and probably not for others. Everyone is having to figure out how to redesign their entire business plan and how they deliver services and projects to customers. It's an experiment, but I think it's very worthwhile," Eudaly said.
Not all businesses included in Phase 1 of the state's reopening plan are thrilled about going back to work so soon. Touch-based businesses like hair stylists, nail techs and makeup artists are petitioning Governor Brown to move them to Phase 3.
"It's literally impossible for us to social distance and do our job. Our main concern is that it's just not the safest course to take," said Nicola Corl, owner and stylist of Sweetheart Salon in Southeast Portland.
Corl helped form the Oregon Hands-On Collective, a group of hundreds of touch-based businesses hoping for the governor's help.
"The shortest appointment I have with anybody is one hour. I spend the majority of that one hour within a foot of their head. That's the same for nail techs and makeup artists, it's a lot of face-to-face contact," Corl said.
Corl says if businesses like hers are included in Phase 1 and don't open, they fear they won't be eligible for unemployment, something most of the stylists haven't received yet.
"We're asking that we're given the chance to wait for Phase 3 so that we can see what happens when businesses that don't have personal contact to open up. To see if there is a spike in cases. To see if there are big changes. To see if it's really safe for us to be touching people."
Multnomah County officials have said they plan to apply to enter Phase 1 by June 5 and hope to be approved by June 12.