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Diners enjoy the newly expanded newly expanded seating area along the Petaluma river at Seared, foregrounded, and Risibisi restaurants in downtown Petaluma on Friday, September 18, 2020. Cucina Paradiso & Central Market restaurants also expanded their seating. (Photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

Since public health orders gave the green light for businesses to move outdoors, several of Petaluma’s main downtown thoroughfares are bustling as of late, their sidewalks and parking spaces home to packed dining tables and salon chairs.

“It’s like Italy,” said Dale Richardson, after lunch Friday at Cucina Paradiso. “It’s beautiful.”

With the pandemic disease still spreading in Sonoma County, restaurants remain limited to outdoor food and beverage service, taking their core indoor business off the table. Petaluma joined Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Healdsburg in clearing the way for restaurateurs to set up outdoors to stay open.

The revitalization of this cobblestoned corridor coincides with the start of the long overdue dredging of the Petaluma River, which began Sept. 5. That $10 million project will remove the mudflats that have clogged the river’s downtown corridor and forced repeated cancellations of beloved traditions like the holiday Lighted Boat Parade and the Petaluma Yacht Club’s Memorial Day regatta.