New plan would reopen University Avenue to traffic in July

Diners may rave about downtown Palo Alto's flourishing outdoor dining scene, but for Elie Monarch the ongoing closure of University Avenue has been anything but a boon.

Like most other retailers throughout downtown, Monarch, who owns Footwear Etc. on University, has seen business dwindle over the course of the pandemic. Many area restaurants have since rebounded, boosted by the city's decision last year to close University and a portion of Ramona Street to car traffic to facilitate outdoor dining. Monarch's stores in Walnut Creek and San Mateo have rebounded nicely and have seen business go up by 10% over prepandemic levels in recent months, he said. The Palo Alto store, by contrast, is at about 50% of its prepandemic business, Monarch told this news organization.

He believes the city's decision to close off University Avenue to cars is at last party to blame. He said he supported the city's move toward parklets last summer to facilitate outdoor dining, a program that Rooh and other restaurants on his block have taken advantage of. But as the Uplift Local program evolved and the city moved to close off streets and to allow restaurants to erect large tents for their outdoor operations, Footwear Etc. became obscured by the new structures and its business has continued to suffer.

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