Reopening California: Here's what Pleasanton businesses are considering to keep customers safe amid pandemic

PLEASANTON, Calif. (KGO) -- Pleasanton's Main Street is everything the name implies -- a potpourri of restaurants and boutiques, a place that draws people in and makes them feel at home.

RELATED: Everything we know about CA businesses opening and what comes next

But now, those who do business on Main Street are meeting to create a new vision, one that will still draw people in and keep them safe in the age of the coronavirus.

Maurice Dissels is the owner of Oyo, a popular restaurant featuring Caribbean and South American food, open less than a year in the heart of Main Street.

Dissels sees a future where his and other restaurants move much of their food service outside to facilitate spacing, even closing a portion of Main Street certain days of the week.

"We're trying to stay alive here," explained Dissels, who has had to lay off almost his entire staff in the short-term. "Allowing us to be able to extend our dining room out to the sidewalk and onto the street, and that would certainly require them to provide tables and chairs for us, parasols."

It's a concept similar to what other Bay Area cities like Berkeley and San Jose are already moving toward.

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It's one Pleasanton city leaders will definitely consider.

"The city is certainly supportive of that, as long as we can do it safely and in compliance with the shelter-in-place orders," explained Deputy City Manager Pamela Ott, "And, in fact, we're already talking with our downtown association and some of our local merchants about how we might be able to make that happen here in downtown Pleasanton."

RELATED: Cities across Bay Area push for outdoor dining, post-pandemic

Of course, but first Alameda County must give the go-ahead.

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