Good afternoon, Chairs Menin and Brooks-Powers, and thank you for holding this hearing today. When I was a member of the City Council, I was the lead sponsor of two bills – one that created the emergency Open Restaurants program, and a precursor to the bill that the Council ultimately passed in 2023 to make that program permanent. I’m very proud of what the original Open Restaurants program accomplished. It was a lifeline for small restaurants that struggled during the pandemic, saved approximately 100,000 jobs, allowed for people to interact socially in a safe setting, generated tax revenue for the City, and helped New Yorkers re-imagine what our streets can be.
It was wildly successful by any objective means. It is a shame to see that, because of changes that this Council adopted under the influence of car culture, the program now barely exists, with only about a third of restaurants that had approved emergency permits choosing to apply for the “permanent” program and barely a handful of those applications actually approved by DOT.
It is obvious that the new program has failed, and it is up to you all to fix these mistakes. Specifically, I am encouraging this Council to implement the following changes:
- Restore a year-round outdoor dining program. The seasonal program creates too many burdens on small businesses. The cost of purchasing an outdoor dining setup and paying to construct it, only to have to pay again to take it down and then pay again to store it for the off season is too high for many businesses and is the most cited reason why they are choosing not to participate. Allowing a year-round program would also encourage more creative designs, restore a consistent option for immunocompromised people to socialize safely, and create more jobs.
- Expedite approvals. It is unacceptable that DOT had processed and approved less than 1% of applications as of mid-February. Even allowing businesses with completed applications to proceed doesn’t solve the issue because it creates confusion with the State Liquor Authority that could be disastrous for businesses’ bottom lines. In this budget cycle, the Mayor and the Council need to ensure that DOT has sufficient staff to review and approve applications in a timely manner.
Another important way to speed the process up is to remove the oversight role for community boards. To the extent allowed under the Charter, community boards should have little-to-no role in the approval process for both sidewalk cafes and roadway cafes. The agency-level requirements are sufficient to ensure safety, appropriateness, cleanliness, and accessibility, so applications should not require further review and approval. - Alleviate cost burdens for small businesses. My goal for outdoor dining was always to make it as easy as possible for small, outer-borough and immigrant-run businesses to participate without a major cost burden or too much red tape. The point of updating the zoning text along with the legislation was specifically to expand where outdoor dining is allowed to more parts of the city. Yet the Dining Out NYC program does the opposite, which we see from the fact that 59% of current applications are located in Manhattan. The Council can address this in a few ways:
- Remove the public hearing notice fee. It is ridiculous to require small businesses to pay up to $800 to express their intent to put up a dining shed in a local newspaper. They can put a sign up in their window and let their neighbors know for free!
- Ensure that application requirements are clear. According to the New York Times, DOT has sent back hundreds of applications for being incomplete, often because of inadequate drawings. We specifically made sure that small businesses wouldn’t need to hire an architect or engineer to create these drawings, which means DOT needs to provide clearer guidance so that if a business can’t afford to hire a professional, they understand how to do this on their own.
- Create a process for expansion in front of adjacent businesses. In some cases, restaurants have storefronts so small that their space can only support one or two tables. DOT should create a process so that if an adjacent business is not eligible for outdoor dining or not interested in participating, restaurants have the opportunity to expand into their space.
- Remove the liquor liability requirement. One liquor license and associated liability insurance per establishment should suffice.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today. I look forward to working with the Council to make this program successful.