JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville residents may have been \u201csipping and strolling\u201d on the Southbank Thursday night, but pretty soon they may have more options to \u201csit and sip\u201d outside of downtown restaurants. <\/p>\n
Taking a look down sidewalks downtown, you\u2019ll notice there aren\u2019t a ton of outdoor seating options.<\/p>\n
But Dorothy\u2019s Downtown is an exception with a patio area on the far side of the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Still, under current city rules, customers can eat on the patio, but they can\u2019t drink alcohol.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a restriction, Dorothy\u2019s Chef Marvin Branes said can be frustrating for patrons.<\/p>\n \u201cYou like to have your drink and enjoy the weather. Now you gotta go back in just to drink and come back out and eat. That\u2019s just two different situations going on,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n Allan DeVault with the Downtown Investment Authority noted in addition to the alcohol limitation, sidewalk activation efforts aren\u2019t allowed downtown outside of the central business district.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew this condition existed and I\u2019ve been kind of on a mini crusade to get it fixed for a couple of years now,\u201d said DeVault.<\/p>\n But a newly filed local bill would uncuff local restaurants and cafes, allowing them to cross the no-alcohol sidewalk barrier and serve beverages on sidewalk patios.<\/p>\n It would also expand the ability to build sidewalk patios like this one to restaurants throughout downtown.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cIn the North Core, where Pearl District is going, or Southbank or, you know, Brooklyn or other areas. LaVilla, for that matter. So, this would expand the ability to use the entire sidewalk, plus any expansion areas as approved by DIA throughout all of downtown for both cafes, restaurants, and bars,\u201d said DeVault. <\/p>\n \u201cA big part of it, too, is the vitality and the street and the sidewalk activation. It also promotes safety, because the more people you have sitting out on the sidewalk, in this case a parking space, the more eyes are out there on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n And for local restaurants like Dorthy\u2019s, the proposal is being welcomed with open arms.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, we\u2019re behind the times. Most of the major cities are doing it. You know, look at Atlanta and LA, people are, you know, their downtown is real exciting and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to bring here,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n If all goes smoothly, DeVault said we could see the change take effect before the end of the year.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville residents may have been \u201csipping and strolling\u201d on the Southbank Thursday night, but pretty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,7846,7849,7840,7851,7844,7848,7843,7847,969,116,118,117,971,970,7850,634,7845,642,7842,7841],"class_list":["post-9008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jack","tag-alan_devault","tag-atlanta","tag-ben_becker","tag-dewald","tag-dorothy","tag-dorothys","tag-dorothys_downtown","tag-dow-_town_investment_authority","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-la","tag-local","tag-marvin_barnes","tag-river_walk","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-ya_govino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}