A few months ago the Brownstone on Main restaurant closed off part of Lazelle Street, which is an alley that runs between their building and a parking lot. It’s hardly used at all for traffic downtown, and I was pleased to see that they were building a patio expansion there from their restaurant. The Red Brick District on Main (which Brownstone falls under) has a lot of potential to be the spawning point of a new downtown neighborhood with it’s variety of stores and new lofts being built as you read this.
Anyway, I guess the Brownstone never got the proper permits to build this patio and the city is now telling them they’ve got to rip it out and reinstate the street as it was. Not that I advocate taking over the streets without proper authorization, but I think I’d rather see the city expedite the paperwork to make this patio happen. It’s a much better use of the land and would benefit the neighborhood more than the alley ever could.