Outdoor dining is officially here to stay.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams signed Intro 31 into law, permanently cementing the popular pandemic-era program that once allowed dining sheds year-round and let restaurants use street space without a fee. But with the program now law, there will be a few crucial changes.
“My number one ask of all of you who are here: Go on and eat somewhere, spend some money,” Adams said at a press conference outside the Havana Cafe, a restaurant in the Bronx, after signing the bill. “Find you an outdoor dining spot. I know there’s a good plant-based meal here.”
Under the new measure, the city’s transportation department will oversee a program that permits roadway cafes from April to November — the warmest months of the year — and sidewalk seating year-round. Restaurant owners will have to apply for the appropriate permits, which will be issued every four years.
During the height of the pandemic, the Bill de Blasio administration greenlit outdoor dining across the city to boost restaurants’ profits after public health mandates forced them to close their doors. Since the program launched, the number of outdoor dining spots has exploded across all five boroughs, rising from 1,000 locations to 12,000, according to a report released earlier this year. This includes parts of the city that predominantly serve residents of color, where the spaces were not as common.
As the number of coronavirus cases diminished, city officials vowed to ensure that outdoor dining would stay. Before landing on the mayor’s lap, the City Council approved the bill two days after a New York state judge said the mayor could no longer continue repeatedly passing executive orders to keep the program in place.
But the new requirements could end up shrinking outdoor dining in the city for restaurant owners that can’t afford the permits or the process of removing the sheds for a period of time each year. Restaurant owners can pay up to $25 per square foot for roadway cafes and $31 per square foot for sidewalk cafes.
Continuing outdoor dining could also pose an obstacle for Adams’ continued campaign to erode the city’s insidious rat population.
On Wednesday, Adams defended the bill against critics, stating that it will save 100,000 jobs that would’ve been lost had outdoor dining stopped. During the press conference, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi declined to share how much the city expects to profit from charging restaurant owners for the permits.
“Outdoor dining was a lifeline for our city, one that can be used as the foundation of not only rebuilding and reimagining the food and restaurant industry, but also reinvigorating and stimulating New York City’s economy throughout all five boroughs,” City Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.
But even without the hiccups, there are still people vehemently opposed to outdoor dining. In July, a group of New Yorkers filed a lawsuit demanding that the outdoor dining program end. Other residents said that various “Open Streets” programs limit the ability of those with disabilities to travel around the city.
