STILL NO INDOOR DINING AT MACDONALD CARTERET

 This past Friday I again had breakfast not at home.  I was happy to see that the MacDonald's in Carteret was done with the renovation.  "We are open!", the sign said.  Alas, unlike the Burger King down the road, they still didn't have indoor dining.  Nope, take-out only.  Ironically, on that day New Jersey governor announced additional relaxation of COVID rules, that businesses were free to not require masks etc.  I suppose Mickey Dee wanted to be extra safe.

This past Sunday I was in Chinatown for an errand.  On Mott Street I saw what appeared at first as one of those outdoor dining structure being taken apart.  Ah, another sign of the city going back to pre-pandemic atmosphere, I thought.  Just to be sure, I stood a few buildings away to observe the "dismantling".  Nope, I was wrong.  The workers were carefully measuring things with retractable measuring tape then screwed things down.  It was an additional area they were working on.  Weird, if you ask me, but who knows, maybe this particular restaurant was slow in getting the outdoor permit or things are going so well with outdoor dining they decided to add a few more tables outside.

Something else I noticed on Mott Street was that perhaps because of the outdoor structures, there were cars parked halfway up the sidewalk.  The drivers were in the cars, I suppose in case the traffic cops come around they would move.  It was news to me but who knows, maybe it had been like that for a while, since I rarely go into Manhattan these days.  The scene reminded me of a certain section of Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn, just a tad north of Linden Boulevard.  Street parking is allowed, except for certain days when there was street-cleaning.  However, the road is narrower than usual, so perhaps voluntarily all the cars would park halfway on the sidewalk.  It is illegal probably but maybe there's an unspoken rule between the traffic agents and the local drivers.  Maybe too many cars got side-swiped so people don't want to take a chance with parking completely on the street.