Charlotta Janssen Testimony: Chez Oskar

I applied in July.

I am compliant.

I still have not received a license, and it's been hell.

Let's be real.

The current DOT rules are killing restaurants.

Follow them, bleed out, break them, get killed by fines.

This March DOT came down hard on me with four summonses in under two weeks for my canopy.

All winter I had begged LPC to review my design.

There's no precedence.

I'm tossed around between LPC, DOB, and DOT again and again.

I had to cut back my canopy, which served my community.

I had to cut them back to be awnings.

I am compliant.

But what I'm left with is a setup that doesn't serve my customers.

It doesn't serve my block, and it sure as hell doesn't serve the spirit of outdoor dining.

I can only cover half my diners.

I can't enclose.

Try planning service and food outdoors every day.

If it rains, if temperatures dip, it's over.

Imagine doing that at a wedding.

During the pandemic, canopies didn't just help, they saved us.

Shea Oscars, Secret Garden, Zaka Cafe, DSKL, La National.

We made it because we had beautiful, strong, enclosable and sound mitigating canopies.

They gave us real capacity, real shelter, and real presence.

We created solutions because we were allowed to.

Now we're being punished for that creativity.

The new rules are anti business, anti design, and anti community, based on the worst actors and enforced like we are criminals.

This isn't regulation, it's sabotage.

Please allow for enclosable canopies on the sidewalk and roadside that can attach, not penetrate.

Allow for full coverage of diners and where needed pedestrians.

Allow for self-certification, unless there's a history of serious violations.

Make roadside year round, require removal when roads are repaved.

No need for landlord consent.

Um small bomb and pop businesses.

We're not asked I'm closing.

We're not asking for chaos.

We're asking for the freedom to build what saved us.

Stop choking the very engine that kept this city eating.

Let outdoor dining remain a space for creativity and community.

Let us keep building what worked instead of forgettable feeding troughs.

Thank you.

Thank you.