NYC moves to open outdoor dining space for floundering restaurants
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The city has outlined plans to ease outdoor restrictions and provide public space for restaurants devastated by the COVID-19 lockdown. In this photo, Jackson Heights residents watch a live performance in a small plaza. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By David Brand
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council have outlined plans to ease licensing restrictions and open public space for outdoor dining in order to help boost restaurants devastated by the COVID-19 lockdown.
De Blasio’s strategy includes a three-part plan to streamline the outdoor dining application procedure, allow restaurants to place tables in curbside parking spaces and expand outdoor seating along streets currently closed to cars. Restaurants could begin serving customers seated outside when the city enters Phase II of the state’s four-part economic reopening, he said.
“New York’s restaurants are part of what make us the greatest city in the world,” de Blasio said Wednesday. “They’ve taken a hit in our fight against COVID-19 – and there’s no recovery without them.”
Earlier Thursday, the City Council’s Committee on Consumer Affairs and Business Licensing considered a bill to create a temporary outdoor dining permit through the Department of Consumer Affairs and compel the Department of Transportation to identify open spaces along streets and sidewalks.
Restaurants in Queens have been particularly hard-hit by state shutdown orders.
Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech has estimated that half of Queens’ 6,000 eateries may never reopen without federal, state and local intervention — like easing outdoor dining restrictions.
In an op-ed for the Eagle, Grech urged the Council to pass a bill creating outdoor dining areas that enable restaurants to follow social distancing guidelines.
“Opening streets and sidewalks to diners will help alleviate the pain being felt by restaurateurs, and at a time of record unemployment, put New Yorkers back to work,” Grech said.
