How to eat outdoors

Many streets of New York are unrecognizable from 18 months ago thanks to a pandemic innovation we welcomed: outdoor dining, which helped more than 11,000 restaurants, fixtures in their neighborhoods and employers of hundreds of thousands, cheat death. But as COVID subsides — and as, cough cough, the delta variant rushes in and a possible fall resurgence looms, as vaccinations lag — the calls to put the sheds out to pasture have intensified.

Mounting complaints might have the feel of spaghetti thrown against the wall. There’s too much noise. The makeshift structures are ugly and take up too much space on sidewalks and streets. Rats are showing up, without reservations. Residents are increasingly greeted by garbage and vomit in the morning. And of course, the lost parking spaces are another inconvenience to drivers who already feel besieged.

We say on balance, outdoor dining was and remains a boon to the city, one that has improved street life and helped businesses that are the souls of their communities survive. We also say if it is to stay, quality of life concerns must be digested in good faith, not rejected as so much NIMBYism.

Not all sheds that were a good idea last spring will be a good idea next spring. Assess and reconsider, and do it neighborhood by neighborhood, with sensitivity to street-specific concerns. Professionalize shed design standards: All should be accessible to people in wheelchairs, and none should be ramshackle or obnoxious. Hand out more fines for trash disposal failures that invite vermin.

And take noise complaints, which have risen sharply, seriously. The city is always going to be louder than the suburbs, but the cacophony was too much for too many even before their effective front yards became party central.

A councilman foolishly proposes forcing an initiative on the November ballot to revisit rankedchoice voting, which was approved by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. In a parallel universe, we might make like Yelp and use direct democracy to ask citizens their opinion of outdoor dining.