IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The stretch of North Linn Street in downtown Iowa City that’s been partitioned off to traffic and home to benches, tables and chairs for the patrons of nearby restaurants since this summer has, in recent weeks, added a set of booths to the landscape.
Much like the seating available on the site through the summer and fall months, the booths - repurposed Johnson County voting booths now referred to as “warming huts” by the Iowa City Downtown District - are there to provide options for those interested in eating out but not comfortable with the idea of sitting inside a restaurant amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“What we’ve been doing, over the fall and winter months, is to continue to provide opportunities for people to still be able to eat and drink outside if they want to,” Nancy Bird, the executive director of the Iowa City Downtown District, told the Press-Citizen.
The booths represent one of a number of activities the business association has installed or adapted ahead of the winter months in an effort to support local businesses through an economically challenging year. Other efforts have included the Holiday Pop-Up Booth and the now-outdoor Santa Saturday, as well as the Holiday Shopping Campaign and a delivery service run by ICDD staff.
The cold weather was already on the mind of Brix owner Nick Craig last month.
When the Press-Citizen spoke to him in advance of November’s Small Business Saturday, Craig said he was concerned about how winter would further hurt the area’s businesses.
“I think everyone’s worried about what happens when the weather changes and people can’t be outside,” he said at the time.
Now that snow and freezing temperatures have well and truly arrived, he said he sees the warming huts as something that could ease the pain, even if they don’t entirely make up for COVID-related losses.
“We were brainstorming ideas to continue the welcoming vibe of The Northside Outside that we created earlier this year and were offered these shelters free of charge for the winter,” Craig told the Press-Citizen this week. “While we understand the limitations of them in offsetting the reality of Iowa winters, we hope that they help with the atmosphere and the continuity of the outdoor space for warmer days ahead throughout this season and seasons to come.”
The huts’ installation drew some criticism online earlier this month, with some lambasting the spaces for having the potential to promote the spread of the novel coronavirus at a time when experts are already concerned about hospital resources and schools have opted to keep students at home.
Similar solutions have appeared in New York and other cities across the U.S. as local businesses attempt to find creative solutions to reach customers amid the ongoing pandemic.
In contrast to similar eating spaces, like those reported on by The New York Times, Iowa City’s huts are solid structures, as opposed to tents, and they are not heated.
Johnson County Public Health Department Community Health Division Manager Sam Jarvis told the Press-Citizen that the level of safety provided by these huts is hard to gauge with a simple “more-” or “less-safe” when compared to eating indoors or outside.
He said spaces like Iowa City’s huts seem to provide good airflow and ventilation, though, which is a key factor in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Bird, the downtown district’s executive director, said the huts are seen as a “low maintenance program,” so while the group plans to remove snow that builds up in the area over the coming months, those patronizing the huts should expect them to be maintained much like the street’s benches and tables over the summer - meaning there are no plans to wipe them down after every group/customer.
Iowa has generally permitted indoor eating over the past eight months, up to at 50% capacity. Other states, like New York, have set much lower occupancy limits.
Both Bird and Jarvis recommended patrons interested in using the huts follow CDC guidelines; Jarvis added that avoiding leaving home at all remains the safest option.
”(We’re) happy to see the innovative practices to make dining a bit safer and comfortable,” Jarvis noted in an email to the Press-Citizen, “but, as we’ve mentioned from the beginning, curbside or take-out is less risky.”
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