BY ERIC ADAMS | Summer weather is here, and there is no better time to be on the streets of New York — especially at our city’s bustling outdoor restaurants.
At the height of the pandemic, our temporary outdoor dining program served millions of New Yorkers and saved 100,000 jobs. It allowed cooks, waiters, busboys and all those who depend on the restaurant industry to get back to work — and New Yorkers to get back to socializing safely after being cooped up indoors.
Outdoor dining transformed our cityscape for the better, making our sidewalks and neighborhoods livelier and more welcoming and helping our small businesses thrive. While it may have been an improvised solution at first, outdoor dining helped us reimagine how we use our public spaces, and quickly became a beloved feature of New York City life.
But outdoor dining brought challenges, too. Abandoned and poorly maintained sheds became a haven for rats and an eyesore for residents. We’ve removed more than 300 of these problem sheds from our neighborhoods.
And now, our new permanent outdoor dining program will build on what we learned during the pandemic and in subsequent years, and make outdoor dining more streamlined, sanitary and sustainable. It will provide clear design guidelines that will help keep our streets clean and rat-free while giving restaurant owners the opportunity to exercise their creativity. It will significantly expand sidewalk dining from an option that was available almost exclusively in Manhattan to a year-round feature in all five boroughs. Now, all New Yorkers will be able to enjoy the many benefits of outdoor dining. This equitable and inclusive approach will continue to bring vibrancy to our diverse neighborhoods and help our city’s economic recovery.
The new program will also make street dining possible for eight months out of the year. This will allow the city to clean and repair streets in the offseason, and ensure that unused structures are not left up indefinitely. This new vision for outdoor dining addresses many different needs: It will deliver outdoor space for restaurants, clean streets and a high quality of life in our communities.
Finally, our new program will make life easier for all the small restaurant owners who are pillars of our communities. There will be one process for all outdoor dining, housed under one city agency. From the Upper West Side to Far Rockaway, we want to partner with restaurants, not penalize them.
I’d like to thank Councilmember Marjorie Velasquez and the many others who have worked tirelessly to bring New York City a permanent outdoor dining program that helps communities thrive and creates quality jobs for hardworking New Yorkers.
Our new permanent outdoor dining program allows us to expand the opportunities that were created during the pandemic and continues to build the New York City of tomorrow.
Adams is the 110th mayor of New York City.
We have a Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, who lived for many years on Bedford Street, one of the most negatively impacted streets in the West Village due to the city’s Outdoor Dining aka booze shed policy. As a private citizen, what does Sonia Sotomayor think about the devastation of her beloved, historic West Village neighborhood? Please see, “What Say You, Sonia Sotomayor?—Open Restaurants Is Devastating Your Beloved West Village!” https://oscillations.net/2023/06/13/what-say-you-sonia-sotomayor-open-restaurants-is-devastating-your-beloved-west-village/
Also, sidewalk sheds that were errected during the pandemic and leave less than 8 ft of true sidewalk to walk on must be removed or made smaller. The DOT has done nothing to address the issue.
The complainers (I think they’re right) voted for Adams & for anyone with a “D” on the ballot. Blame yourselves for your predicament.
It is hard not to feel incredibly cynical about NYC Democrat elected officials who, as it turns out, are actually non-Democratic, uninterested in constituents, aligned with lobbyists — just like stereotypical Republicans.
It is terrifying to consider all the land-use actions happening all at the same time that will destroy neighborhoods and lives of New Yorkers — all facilitated by Democratic elected representatives.
Restaurant sheds, rezonings, a casino, a soccer stadium (Queens) to name
a few. I’d also add the new borough jails. (I happen to believe in criminal justice reform but new jails in neighborhoods is not the solution). And a comment above mentions the City’s plan to build e-commerce truck facilitation centers — these will give unfair advantage to e-commerce and cement the end of local shops. And decisions that give unfair benefits to Uber while destroying yellow taxis.
REBNY (Real Estate Board of NY), Transportation Alternatives/Uber, NY Hospitality Alliance, etc. run the show.
It is terrifying.
Another plan by the mayor who can’t get anything right from the get-go. He’s in the restaurant industry’s pockets. The residents do not want the noise, garbage, no street cleaning and rats that the outdoor program has produced. We certainly don’t want outdoor restaurants to stay open until midnight and have amplified music. We have been disturbed by this for 2 years. This isn’t Coney Island. Please kill the bill.
Whatever happened to the NYC that protected its people from the interests of big business? We have been suffering for three long years in the West Village. Our streets are filthy (not cleaned in 3 years), under the street sheds the rat population has soared, and the noise keeps our residents awake — and our complaints fall on deaf ears. We residents have invested our life savings in maintaining our historic and landmarked neighborhood, an area that is quickly growing into a playground for restaurants. And we see our work, in the tradition of the great Jane Jacobs, going for naught. The restaurant owners say the neighborhood is boring and that we need more street life with bars, loud music, etc. NO. We are historic, and perhaps dull as we promote architecture and history. And yes we are being driven out and forced to sell our property to investors. None of this is good.
“Equitable”? Orwellian doublespeak, Mayor Adams.
For the second time in as many years, I went to my local hardware store and found it boarded up. Both were owned and operated by Asian immigrant families.
In addition to the other horribles (yes, we have rats; yes, we have late-night noise that wakes me and my children; yes, we have heaps of stinking garbage; yes, our fire egress is regularly blocked, as is our front entrance; yes, big black flies proliferate and invade our home whenever we dare to open the windows for some unfresh air; the stench and drone of grease-trap cleaner “Clean Air Group” — more Orwellian doublespeak), the roadway sheds beneath my family’s windows — “sheds” plural, taking up no less than three building lengths, the de Blasio-Adams-underwritten privilege of one restaurant — collect standing water that has infested us with mosquitoes for the past three years.
The restaurant owners benefiting from this debacle — a spectacular bow and scrape by de Blasio-Adams to the nightlife industry and real estate — in most cases I’m aware of are rich and come from rich countries abroad.
All these in cahoots — the Mayors, the Councilmembers enabling them, and the nightlife and real estate players — are bankrupting small businesses built by immigrant communities of color and destroying homes and communities.
Does anyone else think it’s unacceptable that our district’s councilmember, Bottcher, keeps helping this Mayor force-feed the Hospitality Alliance’s Open Restaurants agenda down the throats of oversaturated neighborhoods? Throughout 2021 and going into 2022, after a continuous PR barrage by Open Restaurants industry lobbyists & a City Planning Commission utterly devoid of public process, CM Bottcher was informed & implored by his restaurant-saturated residential constituency with entreaties & protests from every level of his community to take a public stand against the Mayor’s drastic Zoning Text Amendment. Bewilderingly, CM Bottcher instead voted yes. As it turns out, public process is good for him to get elected, but not good enough for him to help his voters. It seems taking away fundamental public process & removing zoning protections from where voters live somehow squares with preserving fundamental democratic community ideals & harmony, values he so often espouses & politics upon.
Last year’s Zoning Text Amendment allowed the Mayor to strip away neighborhood controls over commercial roadbed & sidewalks use, with zero input from the people who live there. Every CM who voted yes — led notably by the most-saturated-most-skin-in-the-game District 3 — helped this Mayor do that dirty deed. That fateful legislative failing helped pave the way for the restaurant industry lobbyists & every other public-realm lobby to continue the modern day steamrolling of the community’s voice. Next up was to join their @openplans public realm reimagining pals at the new writing tables the Mayor set up for them down at City Hall to “help” the CM’s draft new permanent Open Restaurants legislation for industry-friendly city councilmembers to call their own. Once again, zero public process, zero community voice at that vast array of tables in the backroom. Just no room, sorry, only “community stakeholders” allowed. Only reluctantly do you hear any CM speak of it, especially not the industry’s highly prized District 3. Only then do we hear the same old Mayoral & Open Restaurants lobbyist catch words & phrases nobody actually believes about this is all about the “public good.” We all know them: “100,000 jobs saved,” “lifeline for the industry,” “reimagined public space,” “good for all New Yorkers,” “equitable for all,” “new vibrancy,” etc. Still, so heartfelt, warm and convincing aren’t they? So creative & inspiring. Even so, if anyone needs a refresher on those, reread the “Mayor’s Op-Ed” in The Village Sun each night before you go to bed — it’ll all be so wonderful when we get there, won’t it?
If you want a refresher on what’s actually going to happen to our neighborhoods, don’t read Bill Intro 31B, because the only details it contains are how carefully our new bill of law will protect restaurant owners & investment groups from neighborhood objections once all the zoning restrictions go away in 2024. Plus it dumps all the work of controlling their excessive overstepping onto local community boards & the Landmarks Preservation Commission in a hyper-defensive, elaborate scheme of labor-intensive city review, and of course the community civic-engaged, who always need more work on top of their real jobs or end-of-professional-life retirements, who will exhaust themselves going from one fruitless public CB meeting or LPC hearing after another. All that work that the previous zoning restrictions were created to handle in the first place, so city agencies could manage & maintain & operate through use exceptions more efficiently, so everyday people could reasonably go about their lives without having their neighborhoods’ quality of life overrun while they’re asleep or at work. All that work done by hard-fought, hard-won, hard-preserved zoning text rules, now reborn as fresh bureaucracy & inefficiencies to distract and exhaust us all and inevitably move on from, and just as inevitably that, unsustainable, will be subverted & replaced by the next-best control process we can think of: The Rubber Stamp.
Maybe it’ll all work out for the best, like the Mayor says. After all, look at the temporary Open Restaurants program since the pandemic ended and how he says over and over we all love it so much. Maybe you do love it where you live & don’t see the big deal — but I bet you know a few people who don’t, and that it’s definitely a big deal where they live. In that case, do you still insist on needing the program citywide, knowing it’s a serious problem for others where they live?
But, in any case: If the CM’s pass the bill, and down the road in ’24/’25 they get the permanent program running, don’t be surprised if you still find yourself wondering why your neighborhood identity & quality of life still seem to be silently choking on the looks, sounds and smells of this new outdoor industry left over from the pandemic? Well, at least you’ll know what tens of thousands already know & have been trying to say all along but got dumbed down, swept aside at every turn by the Rubber Stamp Brigade. Basically, just don’t even think about calling your CM for help. They know right now neighborhoods and communities are getting hurt, and stuck themselves into pushing for it anyway. They know right now they’ve been putting Open Restaurants business owners ahead of everyday people. They’ll stick to publicizing only their good deeds on social causes nobody will criticize. This permanent Open Restaurants cause? No talking about it, too controversial, might lose voters, or get kicked to the legislative curb in the Council, or both. Got to keep your head down is how these politicians see it. They know they’re ignoring good reasons to do otherwise — but not out of ignorance.
All I can do is remember all this “public good” the Mayor & the CM’s have been doing for my neighborhood the next time they ask for my vote. The first thing I’ll check is their vote on bill Intro 31B. Hope they get it right!
Future Voice of the Past – You have CM Bottcher. My district is blessed with CM Carlina Rivera, who also approves of the sheds. She also approved of the upzoning of SoHo/NoHo and the decimation of the East River Park. Her policies are anathema to our district.
What a sick move to weaponize “Manhattan” and “equity” like we’ve been harming other boroughs, and this move is a reparation. I never read once other boroughs were being kept from utilizing the program and making their own plywood shacks if they wanted to. It was cheap and there were few rules. Now leading with “equity” it’s like he’s throwing some racist/classist spin on the real, valid, and extensive complaints of those who live near these shacks, have been the most affected, and will continue to be. How gross of him.
Wow. How can you be so deaf to citizens’ pleas? This DECLARATION lacks the same consideration roadside dining has lacked since its inception: the rights and basic consideration to residents, citizens, New Yorkers. Our rights to residential zoning have been stripped from us. You brag about removing 300 derelict sheds, while shed after shed operates illegally across bike lanes, endangering anyone passing through. The city has had ample opportunity to at least enforce the few rules there are and has shown an inability or lack of desire to do so. But the idea that a permanent program is meant for us to believe that suddenly all will be well? Nope. This is not equitable, sir. When a profit-making business is given the right to set up and disrupt his resident neighbors, THAT is not equitable, and I really doubt that you would put up with that outside your front door or street-facing window. It’s so sad to see you and Ms. Velazquez be so “swayed” by the hospitality industry and not stand up for the regular Joe. It’s not who I thought you were.
NOT IN OUR NAME, Eric Adams! For the West Village your Open Restaurants/Open Streets policy is the equivalent of George W. Bush’s Shock & Awe. It will make the West Village unfit for human habitation. Despotism cannot prevail. If you are so confident about your policy — put it to a citywide popular vote following public hearings. “DEFEND Human Rights: DEFEAT New York Open Restaurants Bill”—https://oscillations.net/2023/05/25/defend-human-rights-defeat-new-york-open-restaurants-bill/
#EricAdams is out of touch with NYC. He’s an idiot…hope he is replaced…one way or another.
Aside from the free land giveaway and horrendous quality of life, how is this “equitable”? Specifically, to businesses that are not in the hospitality industry. Rents will rise because having a storefront lease now means you can triple that size on the street for a minimal fee. Clothing, hardware, etc. stores will not be able to compete and we’ll only get more restaurants and bars. Who doesn’t love a great restaurant — but these aren’t great jobs to save. They don’t pay well, are often paid under the table. 401K? Haha. Minimal paid days off. I only pray that the lawsuits appealing this will reverse this process.
Permanent outdoor dining is equitable, sustainable and beloved — is the mayor living on another planet?
This is dangerously reminiscent of slumlords trying to force their tenants out by making conditions unlivable. Is it part of a plan to get rid of as many true residents of Manhattan & turn it over to the extremely wealthy, money launderers, short-term residents who don’t understand the concept of “neighborhood” & pied a terres? Downtown Manhattan is becoming a place that may be nice to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there, thanks to powerful industries such as the hospitality industry & the construction industry that have people like Adams and way too many City Council members in their pockets.
The “Democratic” City Council acting like the GOP — pushing through a massive land use change to benefit business (one business) and without review and without notifying and asking residents.
In the meantime, the City is seriously sabotaging local retail and small businesses.
The City is doing nothing about high rents, shoplifting, rats from restaurant shacks, ecommerce competition. In fact the City is helping ecommerce with DOT’s plan to build ecommerce truck facilitation centers.
Unbelievable.
Adams doesn’t seem to realize how dangerous the street dining sheds can be, operating inches away from speeding cars and trucks. Time to consider his successor.
I love outdoor dining and think it has made the city more inviting and appealing. Hopefully the city will be able to address problems like rats, garbage, and eyesores with this new legislation. Isn’t the whole idea to empower the city to deal with problems caused by bad operators who aren’t managing their dining spaces correctly?
I can’t believe no one in this thread has enjoyed a lovely outdoor meal in the Village or Chelsea.
The negative issues that have arisen with the outdoor dining sheds cannot be attributed to a few bad operators. It’s the very concept that is at fault. Our streets have not been cleaned for over 2 years, shed construction creates ideal nesting areas for rats, the bar & restaurant scene right under tenants’ windows is an assault on quality of life and mental health. These issues are not dealt with at all in this bill.
Ms. Rempel, Don’t you think it is the height of hypocrisy and insensitivity to praise a condition your neighbors unanimously find abominable, when there is not a single one of these sheds on your block?
Not a single one!!!
But that is so typical of the few supporters of these eyesores.
For once, try putting yourself in the shoes of your beleaguered neighbors and show some empathy.
Karen, obviously you don’t live in the midst of a streetful of these hovels posing as sheds patronized by noisy, drunken patrons. Our communities have lost the public space of our streets and sidewalks. These sheds are also a dangerous impediment to emergency vehicles. And what about the other small businesses that are struggling to survive?
The program is so “beloved” every comment is people speaking out against it! SHAMEFUL!!!
Apparently Rat is one of Hiz Honor’s favored dishes.
Thank you Gray Fox.
And in supreme irony, the “program” is not even equitable to all restaurants — restaurants that are not well-situated cannot utilize sidewalk or street like our favorite, which is by a bus stop.
grey fox has expressed it eloquently and entirely!
— this posturing mayor is as stinky as the slimy streets caused by the sheds.
Guess if I was driven around NY by a chauffeured limo, I’d think those sheds are pretty also.
Why doesn’t the Mayor just admit that all he cares about is the real-estate people who donated to his campaign and the hospitality group?
Good thing the Mayor doesn’t have half a brain, he’d be dangerous.
JUST THE WORST!
Marty, there are many sheds that are actually rundown shacks covered with graffiti. There is nothing pretty about these rat-infested, garbage-strewn hovels.
Have any of these “public servants” been to Greenwich Village? In a neighborhood where building owners are precluded from changing a doorknob, these hideous, filthy shacks litter narrow streets and create nests of rats. Why have we capitulated to the real estate interests and given away our public space and right to clean, passable streets?
JFC, the sheer absurdity and lobby-laden drivel emanating from one of the worst mayors in recent memory is truly astounding. Adams’s tenure has proven to be so detrimental to the Democratic brand and its values that even President Biden and his team deemed it necessary to erase him from the national stage. It’s remarkable to think that even de Blasio, who had his fair share of controversies, managed to retain some semblance of relevance in the Big Tent (albeit with irritation of most New Yorkers)
Let’s talk about the so-called “Permanent Outdoor Dining” program, a concept touted as equitable, sustainable and beloved. In reality, it has transformed New York City into a series of roadbed slum towns, infested with rats, plagued by noise, marred by graffiti, and transformed into junkie shooting galleries. Is this the vision of progress and equity that our elected officials promised?
But here’s the kicker: The mayor conveniently neglects to inform the public about the true nature of the bill he penned with the help of lobbyist pals NYC Hospitality Alliance and the big tech hedge-fund founder of Open Plans and propaganda rag Streetsblog. This insidious legislation allows these subpar sheds to remain for another year and a half without facing any penalties for noncompliance. There is no provision to protect against amplified sound or ensure against open facades. Instead, it amounts to a shameful giveaway of public land to landlords and restaurant owners, costing a mere $5 per square foot.
And don’t be fooled by the deceptive “seasonal” provision. It’s nothing more than a sleight of hand, allowing establishments to skirt their responsibilities by simply not using the sheds for three months. As a result, our streets will forever be cluttered with these eyesores, never to be cleaned or reclaimed.
Furthermore, let’s shed light on the astonishing fact that there are currently thousands of noncompliant sheds in clear violation of Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations. These sheds have received citations for immediate removal, and yet they remain standing, obstructing our sight lines, marring our streets and making drop-offs near our homes an impossibility. DOT, perpetually understaffed and inept, is unable to address the existing issues, from potholes to illegal sheds. Yet, the mayor thought it wise to bestow upon DOT a 5-borough program that will introduce more than 20,000 additional sheds and sidewalk seating areas. It’s a recipe for utter chaos.
But let’s not stop there. It’s truly heartwarming to see that the mayor has made this ill-conceived program his top priority, even worthy of an op-ed, while concurrently slashing $567 million from 3-K public school funding. This decision will bring the expansion of the city’s universal early childhood education and childcare programs to a grinding halt, leaving working-class families to bear the burden. It’s a clear indication of misplaced priorities and a disregard for the welfare of the very people the mayor is supposed to serve.
Regrettably, the mayor is not the only one guilty of force-feeding the concept of Open Restaurants down the throats of communities. The cheerleaders at the City Council, including Marjorie Velazquez from Bronx District 13, Julie Menin from Manhattan District 5, Keith Powers from Manhattan District 4, Carlina Rivera from Manhattan District 2, Erik Bottcher from Manhattan District 3, Lincoln Restler from Brooklyn District 33, and Krishnan Shekar from Queens District 25, are shamelessly complicit in perpetuating this disastrous farce.
It is high time for New Yorkers to rise up, demand accountability and put an end to this reckless disregard for our city’s well-being. Our streets, neighborhoods and children deserve better than what this mayor and his enablers are offering. The time is now to KILL BILL 31-B and tell the Mayor NYC streets are NOT FOR SALE.
So well said. I thank you!!!!!!!
Nail on the head, Gray Fox!! The sheds are eyesores and health hazards, and should ALL be bulldozed ASAP.
Gray Fox, you covered all the bases in regard to the mayor’s misbegotten support of permanent outdoor dining! This is a disaster for the quality of life in our communities. To decide this with no public input is outrageous.
He forgot to thank the NYC Hospitality Alliance, the lobbyists for the large restaurant groups. They were the real authors of this bill. Councilmember Velasquez just took dictation. It’s a pity our councilmember, Erik Bottcher, whose district has the most sheds by far, didn’t stand up for his constituents.
Has Erik Bottcher ever stood up for anything? I don’t mean to be flippant, but seriously.
His big issue is mental health and yet outdoor dining has driven many in District 3 to depression and worse trying to live with loud visitors and revelers outside their windows EVERY NIGHT. Can’t wait until District 3 can get a more adult representative FOR ALL IN OUR DISTRICT.
Don’t hold you breath. First it was Quinn who sold out (prior to the City Council she had a good reputation), then you had Corey Johnson, one of the most corrupt councilmembers in recent history, and now Bottcher — yes, he’s kind, and wants to sing, dance and not much else.
There is a though line to all of this. There is no political alternative in the 3rd District and the political clubs prop up people like Bottcher. He’s running unopposed this year, you think that’s an accident? Anyone seriously think Mr. Progressive Arthur Schwartz is a real alternative?
You also have a lazy press which dotes on and coddles those in power. And my saying that likely means this post will be censored.
Adult representative? Look at who’s coming up in the political clubs or community boards. That will tell you prospects are very low.
Erik is a “nice politician” but really doesn’t understand or cares(?) how outdoor dining has destroyed quality of life for his numerous constituents that live atop outdoor dining. Many of these areas have 75 customers being served. The noise is so bad I am taking blood pressure medication and have health issues from not being able to relax and sleep well in my home. Heartless that there appears to be no limits on this. Real fairy tale that there will be no more rats and the guidelines will be READ AND FOLLOWED BY RESTAURANTS. These Council reps must live on a high floor and not near outdoor partying.
How about some consideration for those who live in the buildings that have this outdoor dining? I read that Adams’s new rules would allow these structures to be open until midnight. That is outrageous.
I can’t seem to create a new comment, so I’ll just reply.
The idea that permanent outdoor dining is anything but an absolute nightmare for people who live on blocks with sheds is laughable. I live on a block that has four sheds on just one side, and the filth, noise and crowds are out of control. I was speaking to an exterminator the other day who told me that any pest control measures are just “window dressing” until the roadway structures are gone because their primary function is to house rats, which burrow underneath. And I should mention these are “nice” sheds, not the abandoned ones. They STILL cause serious problems.
The pedestrian hazards are out of control, as visibility is awful and ride shares can’t pull over, particularly challenging for people with small kids or disabilities.
This program is not beloved by the New Yorkers who live on these once-beautiful blocks. If these monstrosities are going to stick around, there should be a very strict density limit per block. Not that I have any faith in DOT to enforce them, given the last few years.
It’s extremely disappointing to see our Mayor so blatantly display his total fealty to the hospitality industry and utter disregard for the New Yorkers who have to live with the impact of this awful policy.
I 100% agree