The city wants to build a bike lane, and the car people want to stop it.
If you follow local politics anywhere, you’ve heard this story before. But this time there’s a twist: Businesses on Washington, D.C.’s Ninth Street NW aren’t just fighting to keep parking spots so their customers can drive to dinner. Like so many restaurants around the country, establishments like Unconventional Diner and Cuba Libre have converted curbside parking spaces into open-air dining rooms. So when Mayor Muriel Bowser gave the go-ahead on a two-way, parking-protected bike lane that would eat up 80 spaces along the corridor, the neighborhood business group Shaw Main Streets warned DCist that the bike lane could prompt a “business bloodbath.”
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Tierney Plumb / Eater DC
The to-go containers filling up recycling bins across D.C. come at a steep price to restaurants. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants have been packing up their goods for customers to open at home, turning the takeout box into a high-demand, high-ticket item. While legitimate fears of spreading the coronavirus and consistently shifting restrictions for on-site dining have decimated business, restaurants that have adapted to the new demands have found that just hanging on requires all sorts of new expenses.
“It’s unbelievable,” says David Deshaies, the chef-owner behind popular brunch and dinner spot Unconventional Diner in Shaw. Without a doubt, he says, operating costs are higher now than they were before a public health crisis that’s stretched out for nearly a year. Deshaies shared several of Unconventional Diner’s expenses with Eater, offering a glimpse of the financial burdens restaurants face. Here’s a breakdown of various
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