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North End restaurants protest start of outdoor dining season with banners, planned rally
“If you want a reservation for outdoor dining in the North End, call City Hall at 311!”
North End restaurateurs protested the city’s outdoor dining rules, this time with multiple banners that hung across Hanover Street and a planned rally Wednesday the same week other neighborhoods in Boston would begin to be allowed to set up street dining for the season.
One banner seen Monday read “If you want a reservation for outdoor dining in the North End, call City Hall at 311!” There was also another banner that said “No more outdoor dining bans!” according to MassLive.
Jorge Mendoza, owner of Monica’s, said there were four banners in the North End criticizing the city’s decision to restrict the neighborhood from outdoor dining.
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The idea behind the banners, Mendoza said, was a retort against the city’s claims that 311 complaints about trash and congestion in the North End in part helped officials decide to ban street dining in the neighborhood. In a lawsuit initially filed in January, the North End Chamber of Commerce and restaurant owners argued that 311 complaints related to outdoor dining were not unique to their neighborhood.
“What we want to do now is have people who are in favor to call in to 311,” Mendoza said.
A website, defendthenorthend.com, was also listed at the bottom of a banner, which has links to a page soliciting $10,000 in funds to “fight the city through our legal effort.”
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“The city uses taxpayer dollars to defend their policies,” Mendoza said. “We’re paying for our defense on our own, so we’re asking the public to pitch in and help out.”
The signs in the North End come ahead of May 1, the date when restaurants across the city are allowed to set up on-street and sidewalk patios — except in the North End, where Mayor Michelle Wu banned al fresco dining on streets. Mendoza said the North End restaurants associated with the lawsuit, their employees, and other supporters will protest the outdoor dining rules on May 1 starting at 3 p.m. on Hanover Street.
The restrictions, which were also in place last year, have been part of a years-long feud between North End restaurant owners and the Wu administration.
City officials have argued that the “unique” neighborhood — which has the densest restaurant presence per capita in the state — presents challenges when it comes to allowing outdoor dining, with its narrow streets and sidewalks, parking scarcity, high foot traffic, and the 11,000 residents that call the North End home.
The restaurant owners responded with their lawsuit, claiming their Italian restaurants were discriminated against by the city because of their exclusion from the program.
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The plaintiffs also have claimed that a $7,500 fee the city imposed in 2022 to participate in outdoor dining was “unlawful” and “singled out” restaurants in the North End for making them pay fees that other neighborhoods didn’t — and money that the lawsuit claims the North End never saw put toward “enhanced city services” in the neighborhood. They said their outdoor dining season was shortened to five months compared to other neighborhoods.
Earlier this month the city’s attorney asked a federal court judge to throw out the amended lawsuit, arguing that the plaintiff failed to state a claim when challenging the city’s restrictions on outdoor dining in the North End.
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