Outdoor Patio Dining in DeKalb

Kay, no rumor. I personally heard from 2 of the many painters involved with "wingding" that it is true. I had forgotten that story and even "wingding" until you brought that up.

This could be another potential string, remembering the "strange people" who have graced this community in the past. Sorry, word probably should be "eccentric".

I feel the council has made another mistake. Rushing into decisions is never a good one but if campaign promises must be kept than I understand.

How much did it cost to re-stripe parking from parallel parking to diagonal to go from 18 spaces to 23 in that area? Now they will re-do the re-do? So the number of parking spaces will go from today's 23 back down to 2007's 18? How much money, time, and resources will that waste?

A few years back, there was NIU President Clyde Wingfield, nicknamed "Wingding." According to legend/rumors/wild stories, he had the President's house re-painted, then he had the re-painting re-painted.

Re-doing a re-do must be a DeKalb tradition! Perhaps 2nd Street should have the honorary Wingding's Way added to the street name.

Even an eventual escalation to around $1 per square foot per YEAR is ridiculously cheap compared to the cost to community and inconvenience to other tenants. If you are enhancing downtown DeKalb, these tenants should pay fair market value for the IMPROVED location. Not one alderman had the sense to ask what the total financial impact of this proposal, they're just salivating at the gills to suck down pitchers of margaritas in an outdoor venue in restaurant-deprived DeKalb. Not one alderman brought up the potential liability exposure Ivan brings up. It's all rose-colored group think!

Council meeting is going on as I post this. Looks like the rubber-stamp committee is ready to approve despite failures to provide notifications. Does anyone on the council understand the concept of fair market value?

I'm not sure it is really fair to the taxpayers and other merchants who can't have this feature for their store, bar, or restaurant. There are modifications that are being performed that change the original plans. Just the changing of the plans gives the contractor(s) an extra that really doesn't need to be competitive so we know this change order will be more expensive then if designed into the project upfront and bid on.

Once this modification takes place, the change is permanent and really can't be used by anyone else and would turn out to be just a wide walking area when really parking is one of the number one issues for customers trying to use the downtown merchants. Actually, in some instances, these parking spots that are being vacated for this purpose are hurting several of the neighboring businesses who count on these parking spots for easy access for their customers. Let's use Gordon's Hardware for one who would be hurt.

Many businesses have to either close or suffer due to weather (season) changes, these businesses should really in all fairness pay based on 12 months.

I realize that Illinois weather will provide maybe 200 viable outdoor seating days annually (kerosene heaters may extend this). From what I've seen, plans call for removing parking from the public realm year round, regardless. But if you wanna cut the rent roll I've proposed above in half due to climate, that's still a meaningful chunk of change. If each outdoor table enjoys four to five seatings a day, that's 100 daily table seatings spread among the three cafes (24 tables total). Over the course of 200 active days, that's 20,000 outdoor table seatings! Is $1/table seating (regardless of the number of patrons) an unreasonable expectation for the city's coffers in return for providing the space? Under the currently proposed plan, it will take more than 17 years before the city recoups its share of the necessary modification costs!!!

Thanks for posting the maps of the proposed cafes above! I didn't realize we are talking about over 2000 square feet within the three projects combined! At a potentially fair rate of $1 per square foot per month (vs. $0.50 per YEAR) that's a difference of $23,000 a year! Anybody else want to propose a fair rental rate for this public space, particularly in consideration of the potential exposure which Ivan mentions above?

How would you like to rent some prime real estate for FIFTY CENTS per SQUARE FOOT per YEAR? Interested? I realize this is maybe 1% to 3% of fair market value. Oh, by the way, it's renewable for up to 25 years! Cause that's the kind of benevolent landlord I am! I'm all for alfresco dining and having more attractive dining options locally, but the city should understand the concept of FAIR MARKET VALUE and not subsidize businesses which are already getting huge pubic assistance funneled through our Re:New "investment". Of course, when you're made of money, what's another $10,000 a year for 25 years?

Can we have a study performed that will show us how many actualy practical days there are in a DeKalb weather year to actually make an outdoor area profitable.

Bugs, train noise, close approximity to traffic and exhaust fumes, lack of privacy. How much lost revenue due to the lost number of convenient parking spaces. Can this be done with the most recent numbers from the redone parking lot on 3rd and Locust?

What is the liability issue here with the City of DeKalb especially since the city if self insured? If the city rents or leases the areas to the restaurants, the city still assumes some liability but what would be a fair and equitable charge for this square footage if sold outright? Would these outside areas be used for hot toddies when adults are ice skating at the ice rink this winter?

I know I am sounding a little sarcastic but I just think that this is all being crammed together as they go. No real planning being done. I personally think that the new parking arrangement on Locust and 2nd Street around the new parking lot is an abortion of a design. Line of sight while driving or pulling out of parking lots is horrendous to say the least. How is this considered progress?

Do you really expect the areas around the outdoor cafe areas to be any better designed? When you hear about more cars running off the roads and into buildings lately, why aren't we concerned about liability and safety just a little more?

Whoo, this is huge, I’m on my way.

fun with photoshop
<center><img src="http://www.dekalbcounty-il.com/banners/drunkxing.jpg&quot; alt="New downtown crossing sign" /></center>

I hope these outdoor patios will, (though in small measure), help rectify our uncivilized and undignified treatment of smokers.

'bout time…Glad for the businesses!!!!