93-3-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve show podcast.

And now, Preston and Steve's news update with Kathy Romano.

All right, today is Thursday, September 30th.

Good morning, Kathy.

Good morning.

In the news this morning, a Philadelphia council member is pushing to make outdoor dining on some streets and sidewalks permanent.

Councilmember Alan Dom introduced the legislation during Thursday's City Council meeting.

The restaurants will have to be licensed every year, but the council member still thinks it's a great idea and it's attracting people from all over, he says.

The councilman expects wide support from his council colleagues.

Outdoor dining, long popular across Europe, has become a part of the center city landscape brought on by safety concerns about dining indoors during the pandemic.

The restaurant owners that survived made huge investments to attract customers, some installing heating and cooling ventilation systems.

I hope they keep it.

I love it.

I agree.

I thought it was so nice, especially.

You went to Rouge, right? Yeah, it was such a novelty sitting outside in the wintertime and eating. It was nice. It was really cool. And it's one of these weird things that's going to come from this insane inconvenience and tragedy that we've had over the past couple of years. There's been a few things that have gone like, okay, that can hang around. Maybe we can do that. Yeah. No, I agree.

I agree 100%, especially because that we've had over the past couple of years. There's been a few things that have gone like, okay, that can hang around.

Maybe we can do that.

Yeah.

No, I agree 100%, especially because this also, just on a general level, I mean, a lot of lost ground that's happened, you know, over the past year plus, a year and a half. Let's make up for it. Yeah, and this allows that opportunity. But I agree. the investment that these restaurants made was astonishing.

I was talking to some people, some restaurant owners and friends that I know, and they're like, you wouldn't believe how much we spent to get this working out on the sidewalks. But we've talked about it a number of time is the staffing issue. So a friend of mine owns a restaurant in Concha Hocken, and she has an outside area. She set it up looks very nice and I was there the other day and she said I can't see people out there I don't have any but it'll it'll kill my kitchen like no servers yeah don't have enough servers and yeah she goes it'll kill my kitchen I don't have enough people back there to seat all of these people oh okay yeah you know so she she wants to but uh yeah you're right because and there are you see them their restaurants that would seem to, okay. Yeah, yeah. You know, so she, she wants to, but... Yeah, you're right, because you see them. There are restaurants that would seem to be, okay, Tuesday afternoon, and they'll close for four hours because they can't cover. Yeah. They can't cover those hours. So the temporary allowance for outdoor dining expires at the end of the year. Councilmember Dom hopes to get his bill through the committee and up for a full

council vote soon. The bill would then have to be signed by Mayor Jim Kenney to make it permanent.

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