'The first big exhale in awhile.' After months of takeout, restaurants reopen for outdoor dining

Are restaurants required to check ID to see if diners at the same table are all from the same address?

Check out Cafe Zoë in The Willows! Web Link

@Resident

That wouldn't be very effective - when you update your address with the DMV, they update their database but don't issue a new ID. My husband's ID still has our old address even though we've lived in Palo Alto for two years and he updated his address with the DMV when we moved.

I'm all for helping all restaurants in Palo Alto -- not just on University or California Ave.

I hope the City also has a plan for where customers and employees will park if they close off 100+ parking spaces. They need to be transparent with their plans and work with adjacent neighborhoods to minimize any negative impact on them. To not be transparent about all impact is to sow mistrust and an us-versus-them environment which is not helpful.

These expanded outside dining areas look great. I hope this sticks around even once COVID-19 dies out! University Ave would be great as an entire car-free mall with just a few crossroads open to connect Hamilton and Lytton. The limited parking on University itself is pretty useless, IMO.

Are these outdoor restaurants safe for people in higher risk groups, like senior citizens or people with medical conditions?

Close University as well as California, at least until October! Let side street restaurants have parklets. Let the restaurants take over the streets. I live just one block from University and, yes, this will worsen traffic and parking for me. GREAT. I'm all for it. Why? Because I want all of these restaurants to survive. And the retail shops that will also get help from having people come to the restaurants. I want small businesses to survive. If I have to put up with more traffic and worse parking, so be it. Those businesses--if any--that are against closing the streets are short-sighted. Restaurants can't survive on the limited (if any) outdoor seating they have. They need more more. A little bit of inconvenience is worth having a vibrant downtown--two vibrant downtowns. I don't want to live in a ghost town. Give them the streets. I'll circle the block...

Senior citizen - it is up to each person to decide whether to go out to eat or to go play pickle ball or to shop in a store or to go cheer a walk is safe for them. Our county health director wants us to think it is unsafe to go out at all. It is your decision. Is driving to the restaurant safe?

We had a delightful outdoor dinner at Cascal on Castro St. and were thrilled to listen to their live music. It was a great place to celebrate our birthdays.

Covid 19 is the most contagious disease we've seen in >100 years. More than 113,000 Americans have died from it. No resaurant experience or food is worth that risk to me. I'll be eating at home with peace of mind.

Concerning the "Senior Citizens" remarks about doing as one wants to do . . . seems to miss the fact that what we do can effect others . . . the 6' rule is to help reduce the effects of virus on each other, just as wearing masks. This sense of "Freedom" flies on the face of communities working together. It amazes me these "Freedom to do what I want" folks forget about lots of other things to protect each other – speed limits, gun control (what little we have of it), running around naked, vehicles without mufflers, burning leaves in the street and on an. All these "limiting people's freedom" to do what they please, when and where they want to, ignors the FACT that what we do within our community effects others. Constraints on what we do reduces the possibe or probable effects on others.