Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to improve both public safety and retail corridor aesthetics by cracking down on businesses that cover or block more than 25% of their “public-facing window space” ran into a buzz saw of opposition Tuesday amid concern about the impact on struggling retailers.
The opposition was so universal, mayoral ally and Rules Committee Chair Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) called off a vote by the City Council’s Zoning Committee to avoid what could have been a mayoral defeat.
Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th), one of Johnson’s staunchest Council supporters, said it “feels like we’re creating more red tape” on small businesses already enduring a bellyful of costly mandates.
“They go through the licensing process. They have to get a lot of permits and pay for a lot of things. This is another fee, another process they have to undergo to function and utilize their windows and their property as a mode of advertising,” she said.
Fuentes said she is “not opposed to ensuring that we have a line of sight into businesses.” She said that being able to see what’s “happening inside” is the “way we keep people safe.”
But Fuentes said her ward office could be targeted by the crackdown.
“I tinted my windows, and I have blinds because that’s also my public safety. Public safety is a two-way street,” Fuentes said.
Newly appointed Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th) said the “last thing we want” is for businesses that “have not contributed to public safety issues” to be adversely affected by a crackdown perceived as a “money grab by the city.”
Quezada said he fears that creative Halloween and other holiday displays, including themed windows that bring “character and an energy that is hard to measure” could trigger fines as high as $500 a day.
“I’m very worried about … the huge impact this could have on the culture of businesses that rely on front windows to be their advertising,” Quezada said.
Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Ivan Capifali argued that excessive front window coverings are “a threat to our investigators, a threat to police. … We don’t know what’s inside these locations when we’re responding to complaints. We’re trying to fix that.”
“We’re not gonna come after festive decorations. We’re looking at excessive signage, excessive tinted windows where we cannot see inside the location,” he said. “Window displays for Halloween are seasonal. They’re temporary. We’re not gonna be looking at that.”
Fines would be “complaint-driven” and would only be levied after an “extensive education campaign,” the commissioner said.
“We won’t be out there looking for this. … We’re not going out there with rulers and measuring tape,” he said.“If the business is showing good faith and they need more time to resolve the problem, we’ll work with them.”
Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said she had a different goal: to “ensure that we have aesthethically pleasing corridors that welcome traffic.”
Boatright said three city departments would work to “get the message out” and give businesses “10-day notice to correct” violations.
She assured the Zoning Committee that there would be “no effort to be super-punitive.”
Harris started out by claiming that the 25% limit on covering “public-facing window space” without a permit was already on the books and that the mayor’s ordinance simply gives the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection the “right to go in and talk to our businesses.”
But after nearly an hour of complaints, Harris moved to hold the ordinance in committee until after the August recess.
“That will give my colleagues an opportunity to sit in briefings and work on getting these concerns taken care of,” Harris said.
She called the summer break a “perfect time” for her colleagues to “walk their business corridors” and ease business concerns.