The $7500 outdoor dining fee, on top of paying $500 per month per parking space, is an unreasonable fee that unfairly targets Boston's North End restaurants. 

Since 2020, Boston restaurants have struggled to keep their doors open as they operated through forced government shutdown, vaccine mandates, and COVID 19 variant outbreaks.  The outdoor dining program in Boston was supposed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on Boston's restaurants over the past two years. 

However, the policy for the 2022 outdoor dining program does not mitigate the effects of the pandemic for restaurants of Boston's North End -- it amplifies them.  The North End restaurants are required to pay an excessive participation fee of $7,500 just to have outdoor dining, plus an additional $500 per parking space per month.  These fees apply ONLY to North End restaurants and to no other restaurants in any Boston neighborhood.  The $7500fee also applies whether you receive only 5 additional tables outside or 50 outside tables. 

Mayor Wu defends these fees by arguing that North End residents deserve to have clean streets; a moot point given that restaurants are already personally responsible for cleaning their business areas daily, including any extra outdoor space.  Restaurants also pay private companies to pick up their trash nightly, their is no use of public trash pickup services.

The unfair and excessive fee of $7,500 on top of the $500 charge per parking space each month targets the North End specifically and it will make it impossible for these small businesses to compete with the rest of Boston's restaurants. The smallest, hardworking, mom-and-pop restaurants which help keep the North End neighborhood authentic and thriving cannot endure these fees.

Please sign if you believe this excessive fee, which only applies to North End restaurants, is unfair and should be removed.  Please let Mayor Wu know this is not fair and not in Boston's best interest.  Thank you