Locals call for end to outdoor dining Make it a 'to go' order
They’re a little slice of Europe in the Big Apple, or noise-generating rat traps ruining the quality of life for neighbors.
The public is getting a chance to weigh in on outdoor dining as the city gears up to expand its alfresco-restaurants initiative and make
it permanent. Opponents say they have had their fill.
The Open Restaurants program allowed eateries to stay in business when COVID-19 precautions prohibited indoor dining. The number of outdoor-dining spots across the city mushroomed from 1,224 pre-pandemic to 11,500 as the city suspended rules limiting where they could open.
“I think we find it difficult when people say it’s a popular program,” said Leslie Clark of the West Village Residents Association. “It is, only if you don’t live with it.”
The association is part of Coalition United for Equitable Urban Policy, which opposes making Open Restaurants permanent. The coalition says the program hands over streets and sidewalks to the hospitality industry.
The city says the program, which ate up 8,550 parking spots, saved 100,000 jobs.
“When this program started, it was done as a temporary program to help restaurants, and we were in favor of that. We felt restaurants needed it,” Clark said. “That has all changed. Restaurants don’t need it, and we don’t want it.”
On one-block Cornelia Street in the West Village, nine restaurants have built outdoor sheds, Clark said.
“It looks like a slum,” she said. “These are shabby, horribly built things out of plywood. They are filthy.”
In the East Village, Stuart Zamsky, head of the East Fifth Street Block Association, said restaurants showed no regard for residents, with sprawling set-ups, loud TVs and even outdoor sing-a-longs.
“They’re not saying they need this temporarily,” he said. “They’re being pigs. They want it forever.”
Community boards are being asked to vote on a zoning amendment that would allow outdoor dining where it is now prohibited.
Under the proposal, the Department of Transportation would take over administration of Open Restaurants, and eateries would need to apply. The cost to restaurants hasn’t been announced.
The new program would launch in 2022 or 2023.
At a Lower East Side community-board meeting earlier this month, opponents jeered as city officials explained the proposal.
“My neighborhood was quiet until this program began. Now it’s a nightmare,” said Linda Jones, a Community Board 3 member.
“There are people drunk, reveling in the streets, fighting each other, harassing women and even harassing any passerby until 4 in the morning. We cannot sleep.”
Another resident said rodents were also reveling.
“There are rats that live under them. We are feeding rats,” Alexis Adler said. “We just went through a pandemic. We are inviting the next pandemic with these sheds.”
Andrew Rigie, head of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, said his group wants “an outdoor-dining program that works for restaurants, workers and communities.
Mitch Schwartz, a spokesman for Mayor de Blasio, said the program “has made this city more vibrant than ever.”
“We’re happy to discuss ways to make the program stronger in the long term,” he said, “but make no mistake: A stance against outdoor dining is a stance against this city’s recovery.”