Once said to be a lifeline for New York City’s restaurants, outdoor dining has quickly dwindled since its sprawling heyday during the pandemic.
New numbers show that out of the thousands of restaurants in the city, only a handful appear to be keeping those outdoor dining structures. In the months ahead, nearly all of those structures will be gone — some have been taken down by choice, others torn down and returned to the bare road from before the space offered diners an outdoor escape.
The Adams administration took a sledgehammer to hundreds of the structures abandoned after the pandemic as part of an effort to cleanup city streets.
“We’ve taken down hundreds of shabby sheds. And in November, all of the sheds will come down,” Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi said.
Under the city’s new outdoor dining rules, where outdoor structures must have a unified look, restaurants must apply for their roadside space.
The deadline to apply is only weeks away: August 3.
And while there used to be some 12,500 restaurants with outdoor dining in the city, only 23 applicants have been scheduled for a public hearing to get a roadside slot. That startling statistic was first reported by Streetsblog NYC.
City Hall says hundreds of restaurants have entered the application process.
The deputy mayor thinks there will be a flood of applicants once restaurant owners realize it’s affordable — a $1,500 permit lasts four years. She also thinks some will get their permits in just before the deadline.
“If your favorite restaurant isn’t taking advantage of it, as a consumer and as a customer, let them know,” Joshi added.
City Hall has even sent an urgent notice reminding restaurants to get on board.
Among the biggest changes to the program popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic is the elimination of the much debated shed structures. The city is eliminating the use of enclosed structures by requiring outdoor dining setups be open-air and easily moveable.
The structures out on the road are also only allowed from April until the end of November. The road structures must be constructed in a way that crews can take down and store the setups during the winter months — using things like canopies and soft top umbrellas, with no hard enclosures allowed.
“I think it would be good to have more uniformity,” one diner said. “I understand when people say some of these are not up to code.”
Some owners said it may not be worth the hassle between the costs associated with purchasing the materials and storing the structures through the winter months.
One significant change in the policy: outdoor structures can only be in position from April to November. News 4’s Jessica Cunnington reports.
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