L.A. Plans To Scrap Its Genuinely Good Outdoor Dining Program and Replace It With Rules, Fees, and Paperwork

Los Angeles is ending the city's successful Covid-era outdoor dining program. City officials have proposed to replace it with a new ordinance that's being called costly, onerous, and potentially disastrous for restaurants.

"The city of Los Angeles' pandemic-inspired al fresco dining program—which saved many restaurants from closing—is going away," Los Angeles CBS affiliate KCAL reported last week. "Councilmembers hope that a proposed city ordinance will take its place. However, some restaurants are concerned about the costly new regulations."

Indeed, that proposed ordinance would create new costs and add "additional red tape" for restaurants still struggling (at best) in the face of several factors, including food inflation, worker shortages, high rents and minimum wages, and shrinking consumer budgets.

After indoor dining was banned