Outdoor Dining Could Return To NYC By Next Month, Mayor Says

NEW YORK, NY — Restaurants will be able to use sidewalks, roadways and other outdoor spaces for social-distanced dining as soon as July as the city rebounds from the coronavirus crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration announced.

The mayor unveiled a long-awaited "Open Restaurant Program" on Thursday that will let New York City's struggling restaurant industry serve customers outdoors when they reopen to in-person dining in the second phase of the city's reopening, the first phase of which is slated to start next week.

Under the plan, restaurants can apply to use sidewalks, parking lanes, newly-opened streets and other spaces to serve customers in just a few weeks, rather than the usual months-long process of getting a sidewalk cafe permit, Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said.

"DOT is ready to open our streets and sidewalks to help our beloved restaurant industry recover from the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19," Trottenberg told City Council on Thursday.

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The city-led plan, similar to de Blasio's Open Streets initiative, came just days after City Council members put forward their own bill to fast-track outdoor dining, claiming the mayor was dragging his feet on guidelines for restaurants.

Trottenberg announced the mayor's plan during a hearing on the City Council bill, which would have called on DOT to identify outdoor spaces and then ask restaurants to apply for that space with the Department of Consumer Affairs.

"The bill before us would have had DOT surveying over 700 miles of streets and the [DCA] sorting through some number of permits from tens of thousands of restaurants," Trottenberg said. "We couldn’t do that in three weeks — we wouldn’t even come close."

Instead, the mayor's plan will ask restaurant owners to identify sidewalk or "curb lane" space on their own and apply with the DOT, Trottenberg said.

The city will also look into allowing applications for plazas, parking lots and streets that were recently opened to pedestrians through the mayor's Open Streets program.

Outdoor dining areas in parking lanes will be separated from traffic by planters or other barriers and sidewalk space will only be granted if it doesn't interfere with pedestrians walking by, Trottenberg said.

City Council members seemed eager to work with city officials on the new plan, though they said the legislative process will continue on their own bill. The city is looking into using the mayor's "emergency authority" to put their program in place in time for summer dining, Trottenberg said.

Lawmakers urged city officials, though, to ensure their plan doesn't clash with street vendors, serves all boroughs as equally as possible and doesn't exacerbate unequal policing in minority neighborhoods.

"The NYPD is not going to show up when Peter Luger puts their chairs outside their businesses, but the local chimichurri spot, maybe so," Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who introduced the council's bill, said.

Trottenberg told council members the city expected to use a "light touch" when enforcing guidelines for outdoor seating.

She said all agencies involved — including FDNY, NYPD, Small Businesses Services, Department of Sanitation and Department of Health — have created a task force to put the program together.

"I cannot promise this is going to work for all 27,000 restaurants in New York City," she said. "You come to us, and we'll look at the block, and we'll see what we can do."