NYC adds three Queens plazas, one new street to Open Dining program

Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights is the latest addition to the city’s Open Dining program. Rendering via Department of Design and Construction

By David Brand  

New York City will allow restaurants to serve food in three Queens plazas and one new section of street as part of an initiative intended to revive local eateries while limiting the spread of COVID-19.

The city’s Open Restaurants program now includes Corona Plaza in Corona, Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights and 71st Avenue Plaza in Ridgewood. The Department of Transportation will also ban cars from a one-block stretch of 37th Road between 74th and 75th Streets, a piece of roadway that extends from Diversity Plaza.

“New Yorkers have sacrificed so much during this crisis and they deserve the opportunity to safely enjoy their neighborhoods and communities,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The Open Restaurants plan will last until October 31. 

Community advocates and business boosters have called on the city to do even more to cement outdoor dining in order to resuscitate local restaurants during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

The 37th Avenue Sidewalk Cafe Coalition, for example, wants the city to permanently extend a measure that allows for outdoor dining along 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights — not far from Diversity Plaza.

“I’ve been talking about the need for sidewalk cafes in Jackson Heights for 15 years and now’s the time to do it,” said community activist Alfonso Quiroz, who has organized businesses in support of the initiative. “These small businesses need to recover from the pandemic and residents are clamoring for outdoor cafes”

“In Manhattan, you can’t walk five feet without running into a sidewalk cafe and yet here in Jackson Heights, there’s not one,” Quiroz added.