should restaurants be allowed to move out onto the public space of streets and squares?

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During the pandemic, people could not sit inside a restaurant to eat or laws were strictly enforced that limited the number of people inside and set the distances there had to be between the tables and where and when staff and customers had to wear face masks.

One solution, that helped many restarants to at least keep some business running and some staff employed, was to move tables outside but many have been left in place, spilling over pavements and across squares.

Will this appropriation of public space become permanent?

this is Læderstræde, a busy pedestrian street, close to Højbro Plads, that is around 8 metres wide. A few small tables and chairs kept hard against the front of the restaurant is one thing but these boxes of dense shrubs and the red crowd-control ropes are a bit aggressive and lorries and cars making deliveries still have to get through

 

this is Magasin Torv close to Kongens Nytorv with Strøget - the walking street - across the far end and the busy traffic of Bremerholm forming one long side.
at one time the buildings were part of the Magasin department store so hence the name of the square.
the buildings were recently restored
in recent years, the main occupant was a large and popular florist in the taller white building and they spread over the square with cut flowers and house plants so it was a vibrant, popular and thriving public space
the tenant now is a large restaurant across the whole ground floor of all three buildings and they have colonised the space and fenced it off with large iron planters
if you try to walk across the front of the buildings then you get caught up with customers waiting for tables and with waiters cutting backwards and forwards you certainly feel as if you are intruding so most pedestrians keep to the narrow pavement against the bikes and traffic along the road
is this an aggressive colonisation of what is an important if small area of communal space?