Paso Robles just removed its last parklets. Apparently, the city thinks COVID is over

Paso Robles — a community that’s been notoriously lax about enforcing COVID regulations — took another step in the wrong direction when the city ordered the removal of temporary parklets set up in front of restaurants and tasting rooms.

The last remaining parklets were dismantled on Monday, to comply with a Jan. 31 deadline.

Why the hurry?

Is the city under the mistaken impression that COVID is over?

It most certainly is not.

While the omicron variant is lessening its grip on some communities, COVID cases remain high. On top of that, a new sub-variant known as “stealth omicron” has been detected and could slow the decline in cases.

So why the rush to remove parklets, especially in a community that’s been so hard hit by the pandemic?

At many points, Paso led the county in case numbers and is now more or less tied with San Luis Obispo, which has a larger population and more of the congregate settings that have been breeding grounds for COVID.

As of Jan. 28, there had been 9,106 cases in San Luis Obispo since the start of the pandemic, compared to 8,860 in Paso Robles, according to county Public Health data.

With statistics like those, keeping parklets at least until the pandemic is well under control should be a no-brainer — something that helps the business community recover while, at most, creating only a minor inconvenience.

Yet to hear some residents speak, you would think it’s not only a huge disruption, but also an illegal “taking” of public property.

There have been complaints from some Paso Roblans about loss of city-owned street parking — at their peak, the parklets took up 69 spaces.

Some even claim it’s unfair to allow restaurants and tasting rooms to use city property, but not retail shops.

There’s a good reason for that. Unlike retail stores, where masks can stay on at all times, restaurant customers are unmasked the majority of the time they’re inside restaurants.

As a result, some restaurant customers will only eat outdoors, especially if the diners have pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to serious illnesses.

That puts restaurants without their own outdoor dining space at a big disadvantage.

Some Paso restaurant owners told the City Council they’re willing to do whatever it takes to keep the parklet program, including paying the city for use of parking spaces.

The City Council did vote in September to have city staff investigate ways to increase outdoor dining, whether by installing permanent parklets or allowing more use of sidewalks, but it will likely be months before staff has the time to report back. By that time, there will much less impetus to move forward with an outdoor dining program.

Meanwhile, the opportunities for safe, outdoor dining have diminished with the removal of the parklets, and for what?

To satisfy contrarians who begrudge allowing restaurant owners the temporary use of some parking spaces during a pandemic?

That’s awfully short-sighted.

There’s a great synergy in Paso Robles. Visitors come to town to dine out, maybe do a little wine tasting and, while they’re at it, check out the shops.

That helps all businesses thrive and, in turn, generates more sales tax revenue for the city of Paso Robles and more jobs for locals.

Other cities recognize that, which is why many are considering keeping at least some downtown parklets permanently, or at least until the pandemic subsides.

Paso Robles, it seems, would rather have 69 additional parking spaces than protect the health of its residents and visitors.

Essentially, the city prefers to make it easier for people to access its restaurants than to be safe actually patronizing them.

Today, as it has been for the last two years, that’s the wrong choice.