Interesting study on parklets from University City District of Philadelphia:

*"The Case for Parklets: Measuring the Impact on Sidewalk Vitality and Neighbourhood Businesses"*

http://www.universitycity.org/sites/default/files/documents/The%20Case%20for...

Couple of key points that jumped out at me:

*Parklets are not just for patrons.* A common concern is that Parklets may be interpreted by potential users as private space intended only for patrons of the adjacent businesses. In fact though, Parklets attracted a large number of non-patron users, with the busiest Parklets attracting the most non-patrons.

*Parklet installation coincided with a substantial boost in sales*. The majority of host businesses were able to provide sales data for the one to two weeks preceding and following the installation of their adjacent Parklets2. Among them, the sales impact of the Parklets was substantial: following the introduction of the Parklets, sales were up by an average of 20% (the number of transactions increased by an average of 17% at the two businesses reporting that additional statistic). Several of the reporting businesses had been in operation for less than one year, so it was not possible to compare the year over year change in sales. Based on the typical increase in sales, a new Parklet is likely to pay for itself after just one to two seasons, particularly when multiple businesses benefit from its presence and can share in the cost