State College Borough Council approved an outdoor seating permit for Baby’s Burgers & Shakes at its meeting Monday night. I can appreciate the merits of outdoor seating, and there’s nothing better than a classic 50s diner, but State College should slow its roll with outdoor seating permits.

Anyone who’s been to downtown State College can’t deny that it’s saturated with pedestrians. Students and community members alike take advantage of the borough’s walkability on a daily basis, but somehow Borough Council seems to have turned a blind eye to how outdoor seating at establishments like Baby’s can affect pedestrian traffic.

As high rises go up and traditions like Herwig’s and The Diner move out, I understand why the Borough is looking for incentives that might sweeten the deal to keep mom and pop shops open and preserve the charm of downtown. But that shouldn’t be to the detriment of those who rely on State College sidewalks to get where they need to go — especially when the benefit is so marginal, with room for only a few tables outside anyway.

Council Members Dan Murphy and Janet Engeman were the only two to vote against the outdoor seating permit for Baby’s.

Murphy used Twitter to ask community members for feedback on the project, which leaned to the negative side due to the pedestrian patterns on Garner Street, where Baby’s is located. You can see them for yourself in Murphy’s photo below.

State College: tomorrow the @State_CollegePA Council will be considering a request to approve outdoor seating in front of Baby’s (on Garner). They’d like to add a couple of tables to the sidewalk area in front of the bldg. They’d maintain required 8ft egress. Thoughts? Opinions? pic.twitter.com/qewwD7VLbH

— Dan Murphy (@danielwmurphy) February 3, 2019

Engeman, on the other hand, uses a wheelchair, so it’s not hard to imagine why she might be against a project that could limit pedestrian mobility.

Although the outdoor seating at Baby’s is expected to be more like Inferno or Liberty, with sidewalk-level seating fenced in, the Pickles deck is a prime example of why outdoor seating just doesn’t make sense in most areas of downtown.

It's…deck season? https://t.co/zGoQhk73cT pic.twitter.com/uANhXVYMXO

— Onward State (@OnwardState) April 17, 2018

When the Pickles deck was first installed in late summer 2017, it was immediately apparent that it just didn’t work.

“We’re confident we won’t be infringing on public walking space,” said Curtis Shulman, director of operations for the State College hotel, which owns Pickles. “We wouldn’t want to make anything inconvenient for the public.”

Although it’s technically ADA compliant, the deck’s proximity to a bench and a tree on the same sidewalk make it an undeniable nuisance to the public, especially during high-traffic times like home football weekends.

Residents continued to complain to the State College Transportation Commission even in September of 2018, saying planners must be “embarrassed” by the travesty the deck has become.

Pickles deck controversy continues at Transportation Commission's public hour: "I really thought we lived in a progressive town where we had planners that were educated…you must be embarrassed."

— Elissa Hill (@ElissaKHill) September 11, 2018

All Borough Manager Tom Fountaine could say at that point was that the Pickles deck permit runs through summer 2020, so apparently there’s nothing the Borough can do about it until then.

As the adage goes, just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Just because State College can allow outdoor seating without violating minimum walkway regulations doesn’t mean it should.

What it should do is find a better way to offer outdoor ambiance downtown without hindering pedestrian accessibility.

*cough* Did someone say Allen Street pedestrian plaza?