NYC Electeds Demand Al Fresco Dining On Open Streets

NEW YORK CITY — Demands are mounting for New York City to loosen restaurant restrictions and increase outdoor dining capacity with the Manhattan borough president, a group of city council members and a coalition of transit activists all calling for open streets.

Expanding al fresco dining is the topic of the letter Gale Brewer sent to Department of Transportation commissioner Polly Trottenberg, the letter Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo and 11 other council members sent to Mayor Bill de Blasio and the article Transportation Alternatives published on Medium.

"We write today to ask that you put a plan in place to expand outdoor seating for restaurants and bars as part of our economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis," the council members wrote.

"As we expand space for pedestrians to socially distance, the City should follow a plan ... to use sidewalks, streets and open spaces to help small businesses that have been hardest hit."

The council members' demands echo those recently made by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and NYC Hospitality Alliance executive director Andrew Rigie in an op-ed calling for the expansion of outdoor dining options during the pandemic.

Brewer's letter asks the DOT to relax the city’s Street Seats program — which requires ground floor businesses to get a permit before offering al fresco seating and bans money exchanges outside — so that restaurants could safely accommodate more customers while maintaining social distance.

The Manhattan borough president also suggests allowing low-cost supplies to delineate safely distanced outdoor seating.

"This hybrid approach would allow for a massive expansion of the Street Seats program," Brewer wrote, "mirroring similar successes, as in Montreal, where one may find as many as five Street Seats per block."

In an open letter to de Blasio, TransAlt argued opening up streets would do more than protect small businesses struggling to survive amid the shutdown.

"Car-filled streets, crowded sidewalks, and packed subway cars pose a public health risk and impede our city’s recovery," the group wrote.

"Closing or reducing access to streets by cars and opening them to people walking and biking, as well as small businesses, has been shown to reduce traffic crashes and injuries, pollution, and congestion, and increase economic activity."

De Blasio has said his office is considering expanding outdoor dining but also this week ordered a crackdown on bars and restaurants drawing crowds outside their businesses.

"That violates what we're saying about social distancing," de Blasio said Sunday. "If we have to shut places down, we will."