Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess

An opinion piece published in last week’s Telegraph expressed concerns about the city continuing the use of concrete barriers in Downtown Nashua for expanded outdoor dining, as we have done during the last two summers.

While the expanded outdoor dining was initially part of the City’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on restaurants, they have also helped create a more vibrant and exciting downtown, which benefits all downtown businesses.

There are valid concerns about traffic and congestion that come with expanded outdoor dining. Access to parking for customers of downtown businesses is as important now as it was 10 or 20 years ago, particularly for retail businesses.

At the same time, the positive overall impact of the expanded outdoor dining cannot be understated. A 2021 study of visitors to our bars and restaurants during the summer months reveals an estimated 400,000 patrons. If we consider how much each person spent, this adds up to a significant benefit to our Downtown, in millions of dollars. Several of our non-restaurant business owners stated that they performed better during the summer of 2020 than the previous year, despite the pandemic, thanks to the increased pedestrian traffic coming into their shops before or after enjoying a meal.

A recent Economic Development survey revealed that 80% of visitors to Main Street come for the restaurants and bars. Attracting more people downtown to eat at our restaurants is a great way to get them downtown to frequent other small businesses

Another survey, conducted by Great American Downtown and shared with the Board of Aldermen Committee on Infrastructure during their December 8 meeting, points to broad support (77.5% in favor) for continuing expanded outdoor dining from the public. Among businesses, a majority (54%) support continuing the program.

Because of outdoor dining’s positive economic impacts and its popularity, I believe we should find a compromise which addresses concerns about parking and traffic while continuing outdoor dining.

There are a number of possibilities that the Work Group created to study this issue should consider as they approach this question in the new year.

One compromise could be to only have outdoor dining on certain blocks, where there is a high concentration of restaurants and lower traffic impacts. Another possibility could be only have expanded dining on one side of some Main Street blocks.

Another possibility would be changing the parking configurations, considering options like diagonal, head-in parking to increase the amount of parking spaces on certain blocks.

There is also room to discuss the barriers themselves. Maybe they are painted differently, or maybe the City looks for options that are more attractive other than the current concrete ones; some citizens mentioned an interest in a stainless steel option.

With all of these possibilities, there is a lot of room to reach an outdoor dining compromise. Outdoor dining brings so many benefits to the downtown and is very popular with residents and visitors. And from where we sit today, in the midst of the worst Covid-19 surge we have seen yet, it is impossible to know where this pandemic might be when the warmer weather returns.

It would be a shame to lose the outdoor dining program entirely. But with all of these possibilities and opportunities to adapt the program to better fit the needs of our downtown, I am confident that the Work Group, the Board of Aldermen, and our downtown business community can come to a compromise to continue outdoor dining into the future.

Jim Donchess is the mayor of Nashua.