Berkeley businesses open exclusive patio in public plaza

A group of businesses around the Downtown Berkeley BART Station plaza have created a roped-in, customers-only patio area in the middle of the public area. But some advocates for unhoused people have criticized the space, called the Plaza Patio, for its exclusivity.

The Plaza Patio lies just next to Imran & Ali’s Coffee Hut, which sits about 70 yards from the main entrance to the BART station. It consists of a few tables and colorful chairs, all boxed in by stanchions. 

At the entrances, posted signs identify the space as a customers-only zone for Imran & Ali’s Coffee Hut and the other listed affiliate businesses: Ike’s Love and Sandwiches, Almare Gelato Italiano, Mixt and Sliver Pizzeria.

Ali Fayazi, co-owner of Imran & Ali’s Coffee Hut, told SFGATE that the Plaza Patio has been up for about two weeks. He secured the permit for the customers-only area with the help of the Downtown Berkeley Association, a Business Improvement District, which also paid for tables, chairs and stanchions. 

Even though the Downtown Berkeley BART plaza is owned by the city of Berkeley, the city offers permits for outdoor seating areas, such as parklets and sidewalk seating, John Caner, CEO of the DBA, told SFGATE.

Fayazi said the Patio Plaza has curtailed issues that previously deterred customers — namely, that people would approach customers and throw drinks at them, as Berkeleyside reported. Before the roped-in area was established, he said that he and his customers had “problems with people” every couple of hours. 

But not everyone welcomes the dining area. Paul Kealoha Blake of Consider the Homeless, an organization that provides services to Berkeley’s unhoused population, in an interview with Berkeleyside, raised concerns that the Plaza Patio was eating into valuable public space and pushing out unhoused people.

“It is not a sidewalk — it is our plaza — and I have concerns about them basically privatizing public space,” he told Berkeleyside. Consider the Homeless did not return SFGATE’s request for comment in time for publication.

Caner told SFGATE the patio only added seating to the plaza, rather than taking it away. “From our perspective, more is better,” he said.

A DBA press release calls the Plaza Patio a “pop-up outdoor dining space” where DBA ambassadors set up tables, chairs and stanchions on weekday mornings and remove them at night. 

Fayazi admitted that he doesn’t like the exclusivity, but said his hands are tied. “I’m not that into it, but it’s a small solution for us [business owners].” Unlike other affiliated businesses, the Coffee Hut has no private seating area.

DBA ambassadors are responsible for asking people to leave the Plaza Patio if they’re causing trouble, but unlike the police, they cannot enforce the policy. According to Caner, this has only happened a few times. 

Fayazi insisted despite the customers-only signage, the area is for everyone and people would only be asked to leave if they were making problems.

Most people didn’t get the memo. Aside from a couple of groups of high school students who clustered around the tables at lunchtime and a man eating a packed lunch, the Plaza Patio was mostly empty when SFGATE visited early Tuesday afternoon.

People still gathered outside the Downtown Berkeley BART station — but they did so about 200 feet away from the Plaza Patio, at a nearby seating area. It was nearly identical to the Plaza Patio in all respects, minus the stanchion and “Customers only” sign. Some sat and talked on their phones, others ate lunch and one man played a harp. 

Despite the criticism from advocates for the unhoused, Caner still believes that the Plaza Patio is a valuable addition to the area.

“If you didn’t want to have to deal with any unhoused population, you wouldn’t open that business in Berkeley,” he said. “This is a compassionate, diverse, progressive community. At the same time, we need a modicum of civility and balance.”