City offering more opportunities this weekend for outdoor dining

More Chicago streets are set to close this weekend for outdoor dining as the city continues its gradual reopening.

The Open Streets program proved popular earlier this month, when stretches of Broadway, Rush, Oak and Cedar streets were closed to all but foot traffic.

These streets will be closed to automobiles this weekend as part of the program:

• Balmoral Avenue at the intersection with Clark Street
• Chinatown Square, adjacent to Archer Avenue between Wentworth and Princeton avenues
• Taylor Street, between Loomis and Ashland avenues
• Oliphant Avenue, closed between Northwest Highway and the first alley to the north.
• Sidewalk dining will be available on 75th Street between Indiana and Calumet avenues.

Officials say the initiative is intended to help small and local businesses recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The city also announced this week it has approved about 1,000 sidewalk cafe permits and plans refunds of 75% of the permit fee to the 500 or so businesses that have already paid full price.