Those who don't like bike corrals are going to feel the same about Street Seats

"The Street Seats program enables seasonal public open spaces, generally including seating and tables, at locations where sidewalk seating is not available. During warm-weather months, when the demand to spend time outdoors increases, Street Seats may temporarily replace a few parking spots in a neighborhood to create an attractive setting for eating, reading, working, meeting a friend, or taking a rest."

Read more about them here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/streetseats.shtml

Discuss them here:

This is interesting. Doesn't this help the establishment by providing extra seating? If I am Little Zelda I would much rather have seating then bike parking.

Yes, I expect them to be quite attractive to businesses for just that reason.  Like bike corrals, these are on public property, so I am also interested in seeing if businesses try to have their customers use them exclusively.

I believe exclusive use would be against the intent of the DOT.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/streetseats.shtml

Please consider the following prior to applying to Street Seats:

• All Street Seats are open to the public
• The sponsoring business may not take orders nor exchange money on the Street Seat. But if patrons order products inside the business, they may be brought out to them at a table

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Cool.

This city needs more parklets.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parklet

The folks who run Parking Day have to be psych'd.

http://parkingday.org

The Plateau-Mont-Royal area of Montreal has some great ones. They make city blocks so much cleaner and more pleasant.

http://www.globalsiteplans.com/environmental-design/landscape-architecture/montreal-quebec-canada-welcomes-its-first-parklet/

It is quite a change from the Dinkins era, when benches were often removed to keep undesirables (addicts, homeless, etc.) from congregating.