On a warm Thursday evening in mid‑July, the dinner rush at Bar Purlieu was in full swing. Glasses clinked, forks scraped up plates of escargot, and the little French bistro’s in‑street patio was packed.
The covered structure, just beyond the sidewalk in the parking lane in front of the restaurant, is called a parklet and is licensed by the City of Eugene.
Around 6:45 p.m., the steady hum of traffic on Willamette Street turned into something else…