Have you ever walked down the sidewalks in Portland and felt like the outdoor seating for a restaurant was leaving you no place left to walk? That's about to change thanks to new rules in Portland.

One of the great things about Portland is the number of great local restaurants. They are everywhere downtown and many of them have outdoor seating on the sidewalks in the warmer months.

That's great, but sometimes that outdoor seating can take up a lot of sidewalk not leaving much room for people to walk by. Several complaints have been filed with the city about restaurants using up too much space.

In an effort to find a happy medium, the city put new regulations into place that limit the amount of sidewalk space a restaurant can use for seating.

Here's how it's laid out:

If a sidewalk in front of a restaurant is at least 8 feet wide, the restaurant can use 4 feet of it for seating. If it is more than 8 feet wide they can use 60% of it. If a restaurant does not have 8 feet of sidewalk they can file a request with the city to use a parking spot.

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd enjoy eating dinner between a couple of cars in an empty parking spot. To each their own though.

Overall it sounds like a great compromise. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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