Philly’s War on Outdoor Dining Begins

It’s an annual rite of spring. Restaurant and bar and cafe owners plunk down tables on their sidewalks, legally or not, and the city vows to crack down. This year, the city’s Streets Department has announced a concrete (get it?) plan to commence monthly inspections on all those miscreant businesses. Things that aren’t allowed in the public “right-of-way.”

Signs, sandwich boards, banners, “feather” signs, as well as café seating beyond the City-approved licensed limits.

Penalties include a potential “confiscation of signs, tables, and/or chairs.” Which leads to the tantalizing question: Where will the city store them? Will there be a dungeon for non-compliant furniture? Stay tuned. This, by the way, is a “feather sign” is.