Downtown Pleasanton street closures mark final weekend

Pleasanton’s downtown street closures for weekend outdoor dining came to an end on Sunday, as the city prepares Main Street for the holiday shopping season and battens down the hatches for the colder and — hopefully — wetter winter months ahead.

The final weekend of pedestrians taking over Main Street was more sparsely populated compared to when the Friday-to-Sunday closures first began back in June; however, residents and business owners who were out downtown early Halloween evening said they were left disappointed that the closures were winding down.

“I think (without) the pedestrian-only street venues, I really think that a lot of the restaurants are going to suffer and I think it is something that city administration should really look at closely before shutting it down completely,” said Josh McKay, owner of McKay’s Taphouse and Beer Garden — who also spoke with the Weekly when the weekend street program first began on June 19.

“This has been a fantastic adventure for the city of Pleasanton, and I think this opportunity to open Main Street up to pedestrians has been an absolute success on the business end and on the social side (as well),” he added. “The community has embraced it as well as played by the rules, and I really believe that this is something that the city of Pleasanton should … really get into and embrace as well.”

First proposed by the Pleasanton Downtown Association and signed off by city officials toward the end of spring, the weekend street closures were initiated in response to the coronavirus pandemic as a way to allow local restaurants and shops to continue business in the relative safety of the outdoors.

The original weekend street closures were intended to only last from June through August; however, the popularity of the closures prompted city officials to extend the weekend closures through Sunday (Nov. 1)

At the moment there are no imminent plans to re-initiate the weekend closures, with city staff saying the streets will need to be made available for customer parking in the winter while adding that future street events are still possible.

“Over the four months of the weekend on Main Street closures, we were very pleased to see the restaurants’ ability to successfully participate as well as the community’s positive response. Now as we move in to the holiday season there are merchants that need the street open to best serve their customers as well as downtown residents that need to be able to access their parking,” deputy assistant city manager Pamela Ott said.

“The city will continue to support downtown restaurants by allowing downtown merchants to have a pop-up in the parking space(s) in front of their storefront to continue to offer outdoor dining if they choose to do so. It’s very likely that some version of the street closures will return next year as we understand how we’ll be able to bring back events and gatherings,” Ott added.

General safety guidelines applied to all residents who attended the weekend closures, with social distancing and masks when not seated at a restaurant being mandatory for all downtown visitors.

Despite these precautions, some residents were still not completely comfortable with the often-crowded city streets and would time their visits to avoid the evening crowds.

“(We haven’t really) come here often. We live actually right behind here and we normally do come downtown a lot. But we haven’t lately just because it gets really busy, so we came out here a little earlier before the crowds,” local resident Kristyn McQueen said while grabbing an early dinner on Saturday.

While Pleasanton’s downtown street closures may have come and gone, indoor operations are expected to continue — and possibly expand — over the coming months, as long as Alameda County maintains progress in combating the spread of COVID-19.

Alameda County was upgraded to the orange tier in the state’s COVID-19 blueprint last month, after recording between one and 3.9 cases per 100,000 per week and documenting a COVID-19 positive testing rate between 2%-4.9% over seven days.

The orange tier classification and corresponding local health order will allow Alameda County restaurants to conduct indoor dining up to 25% capacity or less than 100 people, whichever is less.

Despite the ability to eat indoors, some residents like McQueen may still not be convinced that it is the safest move.

“I think it’s going to be a long winter and some people are going to want to sit inside but others aren’t going to be comfortable with it. I don’t think we are going to be eating out (in person) nearly as much as we have been. We’ll get it to-go,” she said.

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