Business & Tech

WEIGH IN: Could Heat Lamps on Seventh Street Boost Business?

The idea gets mixed reviews from some of our Facebook fans.

Garden City Patch posed this question on its Facebook page: Could heat lamps on Seventh Street boost business for food establishments offering al fresco dining during the winter?

Patch received plenty of feedback about the possible use of such lamps and whether or not it would draw more of a crowd to the downtown business district during winter months:

For Nancie Mangels-Pluto the street fumes are just too much to take while enjoying an outdoor meal no matter what the season.

"Even in the late spring, summer & fall...I would rather eat inside or in the back of the establishment if possible. The street fumes are too much. If you can..heat lamps in the back. So then it's a maybe. Not on 7th or Franklin Ave."

Micheline Hull Dolan doesn't think heaters would be cost effective no matter where they were located.

"Even in summer, Seventh Street is really not conducive to al fresco dining...crowded, traffic, noisy...heaters would not help with wind, snow or other inclement weather," she wrote. "I don't think it would be cost effective no matter where they were located (front or back of the establishment), as the opportunity for usage would be very limited."

Patch reader Douglas O'Connor said the idea could work if Seventh Street was closed to vehicular traffic.

According to trustee Dennis Donnelly, however, the idea of closing Seventh Street to all vehicular traffic has received mixed reviews over the years with some merchants even believing such a move would hurt business.

"Businesses in the business district don't want to do that. We've asked them to do that on multiple occasions," Donnelly said during the recent town hall Q&A, adding half the stores do make money and half the stores say it'll drive traffic away because there's no parking available for customers.

John Wilton, chairman of the Garden City Merchant Professional Retailers Group, says the idea of offering outdoor heating to patrons is "growing legs." He asked the village board to take the idea into consideration, especially in light of that fact that other communities around the country say "it changes the vitality and the dynamics and economics of the downtown dramatically."

"if we could think of the whole south side of Seventh Street illuminated and heated all winter long I think it would be something that would contribute significantly," Wilton said.

Could heat lamps on Seventh Street boost business for food establishments offering al fresco dining during the winter? Let us know in the comments section below.


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