As La Carnita patio comes down, city should focus on 'animating' public spaces, Joe Cressy says

Now that La Carnita has taken down the patio at its John Street location, one city councillor says it's time for city hall to "defend public access" to privately owned, public spaces (POPS) in the city.

Coun. Joe Cressy, whose ward includes the restaurant, told CBC News Wednesday the dispute should also remind the city that "we need to do a better job monitoring, animating and evaluating public spaces."

• Table for everybody: City says La Carnita patio 'not acceptable,' must ensure public access

The fenced-off patio, which was located at 106 John Street, is a POPS-designated space. This means that the city negotiates with private developers to include these types of spaces in their plans for buildings, in order to keep them part of the urban landscape, particularly in the downtown core.

La Carnita got into a dispute with the city when it reserved the patio for customers. It was also used by customers from its sister ice cream shop, Sweet Jesus, in the mornings until around noon, according to owner Andrew Richmond. 

But Cressy said La Carnita did not have the city's permission to fence off the space on the west side of John Street just south of Adelaide Street for its own use.

The councillor said he "immediately contacted Planning and Legal staff to look into the matter" last April after neighbours contacted his office expressing their concern about not being able to use the space.

"I heard from many residents who knew it was a POPS and were still asked to leave," Cressy told CBC News.

• La Carnita to take patio down after city complains about public accessibility

He said the city contacted La Carnita in April and asked the restaurant to take down the patio, "but only after the recent outcry did they take it down.

"They decided to use public space for private gain," Cressy said.

But Richmond told CBC News last week that his establishment was confident it had obtained the necessary paperwork for the patio.

"It's not like we would erect a patio without navigating the proper channels," Richmond said.

He also said La Carnita had submitted three proposals last week to change the patio to "accommodate for more public space, shrinking it drastically[and]reconfiguring it."

"We're doing everything we can with the city right now to figure this out," he said. "There's clearly a discrepancy somewhere, we're just trying to figure out where it is and move forward." 

Cressy said he's glad the dispute has been resolved and said the focus should now be on creating "usable, accessible public spaces" in the city.