Your recent article on sidewalk caf/ rules ("Sidewalk caf/ rules to be streamlined" by Camille Villanueva, Ballard News-Tribune, July 16) mentioned an average cost of $23 per square-foot per year to restaurants without comparing it to the rent they pay for their buildings. For the money they are not limited to furnishing the sidewalk with tables and chairs during warm summer days and evenings. They're permitted to bolt permanent fences into the sidewalk, reserving the property for themselves, 24/7, year-round, whether they're open for business or not.

Sidewalk permits should be banned outright. Restaurant owners wanting to set up tables and chairs outdoors for their patrons should be allowed to rope off as many parking spaces as they wish along the street, but off the sidewalk. Rather than fees, permits and bureaucratic red tape they could simply feed the parking meters. Sundays and holidays would be free. A simple string of protective flags, about 14-inches square, in bright neon colors with a reflective strip along one edge, would ward off passing motorists.

I wouldn't advocate putting tables in the middle of the street. Putting them in the middle of the sidewalk is just as outrageous to a pedestrian like me. The policy you describe is clearly business-friendly but pedestrian-hostile.

Tom Grothus

pedestrian

Ballard