On Tuesday, the city launched a survey for restaurateurs, customers and the general public to voice their criticism of the CafeTO initiative launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the past three years, CaféTO has been a transformative program that has made our streets more vibrant and supported the restaurant industry during an unprecedented period of uncertainty. I look forward to hearing the feedback collected through this survey and know it will help us continue to improve the program in the years to come,” Mayor John Tory said in a press release Tuesday.
The survey is on the city’s website.
Township staff say the survey will help decide the program’s guidelines and criteria going forward.
“In 2021, a similar survey by the CaféTO program received more than 10,000 responses, which showed that 91 per cent of respondents believed that Toronto should widely allow cafes on sidewalks and sidewalks in the future,” staff wrote.
The patio program first began in June 2020, allowing struggling restaurants and bars to create sidewalks and narrow the seating lane for patrons so they can maintain physical distance to limit the transmission of the virus.
Due to its overall success, Toronto City Council voted to make CafeTO a permanent city program in November 2021.
In addition, the city council asked staff to report on proposed program changes specifically for the cafe lane portion of the program in early 2023.
Many have raised concerns about the program’s impact on traffic and congestion due to the closures caused by the patios.
The program has also caused headaches for some event organizers, such as the Greektown in Danforth BIA which said it had to cancel its popular street festival last summer due to “logistical issues,” including the removal of CafeTO patios.
Last summer, the city says the CafeTO program supported more than 1,200 restaurants and bars.
The city says more than 80 percent of the sidewalk lane installations have already been removed and that they are scheduled to remove all the remaining equipment by Nov. 7.
