'The only city ... going in the other direction right now is Golden:' City tells businesses to curb their outdoor dining spaces
On a warm Friday evening, people looking for a drink and a little food fill in the tables outside Miners Saloon and the Golden Moon Distillery and Speakeasy.
"I think this is a beautiful use. Because we are getting to sit outside," said Susan Prochaska who had come down from Evergreen with her husband. Their dog sat outside with them as they had a drink. "It would be terribly sad for this experience to shut down."
But that's what the city of Golden has told the bars. After Labor Day, they'll have to roll back inside their spaces and out of the alley.
"Personally, I think that was great for COVID and I'm ready to be done with it," said Mayor Laura Weinberg during a recent City Council work session. "I've looked from both ends. I've walked through it. I've used the 5-foot [walkway]. It is not a welcoming pedestrian experience."
The bars are required under the agreement reached with the city to move into the alley during the pandemic, to keep a 5-foot walkway. The city says it has had complaints about the difficulty of deliveries with the alley closed. Traffic can no longer route through either.
"This is not the right time to continue that use in my view. I would rather get rid of it," said Ward 3 Council Member Don Cameron.
"You need to offer everybody in downtown the same opportunity. And they've taken that away from us without any discussion or any community input," said Stephen Gould, owner of Golden Moon.
Gould says the city did not speak with them and he was told they were not welcome at the August 16th planning session where the decision was made.
"They're taking our outdoor seating away. And very arbitrarily, frankly," said Aimee Valdez, who owns Miners Saloon. "Because they didn't ask for any input from all the people who love it."
Both talked of the danger of people being hit by passing vehicles should traffic return. There is a profit to be gained. Both bars have done better by expanding into the outdoor space.
Valdez points out that the businesses have worked to improve the space. Dumpsters were moved. The visitors have changed: "It was a lot of vagrants. A lot of smoking. A lot of people just drinking out of bags, things like that. Not a pleasant place to be."
Many cities have taken the lessons of COVID and have sought to expand restaurants into public spaces. Golden has done it, not only in the alley, but in parking spaces along public streets and out onto sidewalks downtown. Gould says forcing them to roll back inside is unequal treatment.
"Not only is it unfair but it's the city of Golden choosing winners and losers and not recognizing the reality of the post-COVID business world that we're in," he said. "For whatever reason, they've decided that the businesses here in the alley, are second-class citizens and we don't rate the same privileges that the businesses on Washington rate."
The city will soon install some new overhead lights in the area, and it is only feet away from where a new Miner's Alley playhouse and arts center will be constructed in the now-closed hardware store that shares the parking lot with the bars.
Gould and Valdez see their outdoor dining as a part of that picture. As of yet, the city does not.
Mayor Weinberg says she would like to see more pedestrian traffic in the alley and might like to see traffic stopped at night.
Gould and Valdez say customers who do not find outdoor seating they've come to expect will simply walk around the block and seek out businesses the city still allows to have such seating in a way many communities now favor.
"Virtually every city is allowing people into their alleys," said Gould. "They're closing off streets. They're embracing this concept. The only city I'm aware of that's going in the other direction right now is Golden."
