Cold store-age

This week, as the remnants of a hurricane approach the region before temperatures are set to drop into the 30s, Mayor de Blasio rolled out plans to let store owners do what restaurants have been doing for months: use outdoor space in front of their shops to serve customers too scared to venture indoors. What took so long?

For months, this has been an obvious, though clearly insufficient, way to help businesses stay afloat. The city’s belatedly announced Open Storefront program is set to last only two months, from Oct. 30 through Dec. 31.

It all feels a little like a lifeguard arriving 20 minutes late to the scene of a drowning, after the shouts and the frantic paddling are over. Already, roughly 6,000 New York City businesses, starved of tourists and commuter foot traffic, have permanently closed their doors.

And is this the only tool in the mayor’s kit? How about urging a sales tax holiday to give small stores a fighting chance to compete against the Amazons of the world? Or at the very least, a push for a moratorium on costly city and state mandates that have been piled on over the past few years?

Letting businesses sell their wares in the open air is lowest-hanging fruit. Five months ago, San Francisco, whose mayor, London Breed, has been applauded for keeping the virus contained, implemented a “shared spaces program” to let all types of small businesses operate outside.

Three months ago, de Blasio visited Chinatown to tout outdoor dining, and turned his back on a bakery owner who wanted to talk to him about opening street space for other types of businesses to use, as restaurants have.

Also: What’s with rules excluding barbershops and hair salons from the businesses that can operate outdoors? A few clippings on the sidewalk never hurt anyone.