To: Mayor and Board of Trustees, Incorporated Village of Northport

Northport’s sidewalks have to work for two groups at the same time: people walking, and the restaurants that keep Main Street alive.

In July and August 2026, households in the Incorporated Village received a postcard survey. 724 Village residents responded. 450 of them wrote comments. A second set of 234 people who do not live in the Village, or who declined to say, answered the same questions.

The numbers are not a random poll. They are a large, voluntary record of who cared enough to answer. This is what they said.

6 in 10 of Village residents preferred a clear pedestrian-path rule over a village-wide two-person table cap.
6 in 10 said table size should not matter if a 36-inch path is maintained.
Written comments, again and again, asked for three things at once: keep outdoor dining, keep a path a wheelchair or stroller can use, and enforce the same standard at every door.
The law now on the books does not do that job. It is already due to be rewritten. The question is whether the replacement is another one-size cap, or a rule tied to the actual sidewalk.

We ask the Board, before it adopts a new sidewalk-dining law, to:

Restore four-person tables where the remaining walkway meets a measured clearance (36 inches at minimum, wider at pinch-point corners if the Board finds it necessary).

Or adopt a visible demarcation / painted path so restaurants, pedestrians, and code officers are looking at the same line.

Apply one performance standard to every permitted door — not a special rule for one corner and a different rule for the next.

Treat rooftop, alley, and courtyard seating as legal ways to take pressure off the sidewalk, instead of leaving every seat on Main Street.

This petition is for all four restaurants (and future restaurants) that share these sidewalks, and for the residents who walk them.

Important Note: This petition is not asking for any donations or money. We are only seeking signatures and support from Northport residents and visitors to urge the Village to Keep The Path Keep The Tables. Any donation prompts you see after signing go directly to Change.org to support their platform, not to this petition or the Village of Northport. Please feel free to click “No, I’ll share instead” and simply sign + share. Thank you!

Wear the sticker. Keep the path. Keep the tables.

Paul Gallowitsch V