Caffe Roma (526 Columbus Avenue) is having some border skirmishes with the city-sponsored parklet adjacent to its sidewalk, claiming that tables and chairs set up there are for their customers only. As SF Citizen reports, the North Beach café is just the latest business getting confused with the public part of the public parklet concept, using their sidewalk tables to block access to the public bench in the parklet, and shooing away people who sit down believing that said chairs are part of the public space. We noted several months ago how Squat & Gobble in the Castro, which put out tables and chairs in the parklet a few feet away from their regular sidewalk tables, is not technically allowed to service those tables, as they are not part of the restaurant (something tells us they’re doing it sometimes anyway). We’re sure C.W. Nevius at the Chron will have something more to say about this soon. [SF Citizen]
