Houston originally closed off the seven block strip of Main Street during the pandemic. 
Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Houston City Council just voted to permanently reshape the city's downtown. In a unanimous vote during Wednesday's meeting, councilmembers approved a plan to keep seven blocks of Main Street downtown closed off to traffic permanently, the Houston Chronicle's Yilun Cheng reported Wednesday.

The downtown stretch between Commerce and Rusk was originally closed to allow businesses to set up outdoor seating areas during the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the city's "More Space: Main Street" program. The program aimed to boost downtown businesses that were taking a hit as lockdowns and social distancing kept people in their homes and away from gathering spaces like restaurants and bars.  
 
The program was a hit with business owners and patrons alike.

"So far, the program has enabled participating businesses to add a total of 45 tables and 154 seats on outdoor patios, according to Houston's Chief Transportation Planner David Fields," the Chronicle's Cheng reported Wednesday. 

Fields told Cheng that "We surveyed the businesses. All of them said this was exactly what they wanted. They requested the city extend it… and people felt safer being out on Main Street because there were more people out on Main Street."   

Houston officials plan to replicate the reported success of the downtown initiative in other parts of the city.

"We definitely want to expand this once we get the permanent version up and going," Fields told Cheng.  “This is not something we would ever impose. This is something that we really want a commercial strip, possibly a group of businesses near each other, to see this downtown as an example and say, ‘Yeah, we would like to do that. Can you help work with us on that?’”