Gov. Kathy Hochul extends impunity public drinking and restaurant shanty laws

Restaurant shanties hit with lawsuit again

 

AMNY

New York City has been hit with a class action lawsuit seeking to overturn its newly permanent outdoor dining program, with petitioners claiming the popular al fresco eateries are an unconstitutional nuisance.

The suit, filed against the city in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday by 30 New York City residents, claims the recently-enacted permanent outdoor dining program — which replaced the temporary, emergency-authorized program that began during the COVID-19 pandemic — is illegal for not having been subject to a full environmental impact review and public comment.

That allowed the city to enact what the petitioners describe as a “massive change to the cityscape that defines New Yor[k] City” that is “highly destructive to city neighborhoods and the petitioners who reside in them.”

Before the pandemic, outdoor dining was only allowed in a few areas of the city, mostly in Manhattan, and was subject to a long, bureaucratic and expensive approval process. Soon after COVID-19 struck the city and forced restaurants to shut their doors, city officials used emergency powers to significantly liberalize permitting for outdoor dining, allowing thousands of eateries the chance to reopen for customers to dine in and greatly expanding the scope of al fresco eating. Many built elaborate shacks on the sidewalk or roadway for dining.

City officials and restaurant industry reps have claimed the outdoor dining program saved 100,000 restaurant industry jobs and kept innumerable eateries from having to close. Pandemic-era polls showed the program to be broadly popular with New Yorkers; a December 2020 poll by Siena College and Transportation Alternatives found 64% of voters, including 78% of Manhattan voters, found outdoor dining a valuable use of curb space.

Still, others were less than enthused from the beginning. Critics of outdoor dining have contended that dining sheds take away parking spots, attract rats and other vermin, are havens for homeless New Yorkers and crime, and bring noisy crowds to their blocks for all-night revelry.

“This saturation of outdoor seating is not serving me, my family, or my business. It has made this neighborhood pretty much unlivable most of the time,” said Ellen Koenigsberg, a Lower East Side resident who owns a vintage clothing shop and is a petitioner in the class-action suit, in an affidavit. “I feel like I always have uninvited guests in my apartment that just will not leave.”

Others are perturbed by what they contend are “ugly” dining sheds.

“They mostly look like large, dirty garages and disrupt and change the nature of the street,” said fellow Lower East Side resident and petitioner Elizabeth Dworkin. “It feels like a fort has been built on the block to keep the local residents away so paying customers and bars, clubs, and restaurants can occupy all of the public space.”

This claim about how these shanties saved 100,000 jobs is highly dubious, until you consider that probably over half of them were waiters on wheels from all those bike deliveries during the pandemic.

 

Kathy Clown extends outdoor dining lifeline

 
 

The Saratogian

Assemblymember Patricia Fahy announced that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation extending the use of municipal space for outdoor dining to continue helping New York’s restaurant industry recover from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previous legislation signed in July of 2021 extended this program for one additional year. The legislation signed extends the outdoor dining program for three additional years, preventing the need for continual renewal. A survey conducted in January 2022 by the New York State restaurant industry found that 74% of operators report sales volume in 2021 was lower than it was in 2019. Additionally, 55% of restaurant operators have reduced hours of operation on days they opened and 40% are closed on days they would normally be open, limiting sales.

“Outdoor dining utilizing sidewalks and street space has become a financial lifeline for New York’s restaurants during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” said Fahy, D- Albany. “Not only has it helped hundreds of small, locally owned businesses remain in business, it’s also proved a popular boon to our local economies and ‘Main Streets.’ I was proud to sponsor this legislation to help allow those restaurants to continue utilizing outdoor spaces for another three years to help keep their doors open, and I commend Governor Hochul for signing legislation extending New York’s ‘open streets.'”

“I am so pleased the Governor signed this legislation in time for people to enjoy dining out this summer,” said Assemblymember Carrie Woerner. “The measure was originally intended to be a short-term assist for restaurants in New York during the very trying previous years. However, a happy consequence was learning that people enjoy the transformation of busy streets into places for al fresco dining.  While the food service sector is still making adjustments to the way they operate in the wake of the extreme disruptions of the pandemic, this bill will give them three additional years to refine utilizing outdoors spaces as they come back to full time operation.”

 

Cuomo says the restaurant shanties can stay another year

NY Post

Andrew Cuomo approved a measure that allows restaurants to set up outdoor dining on city sidewalks and streets. Don Pollard/Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday rubber stamped a measure that temporarily extends a COVID-lockdown policy that permitted restaurants to set up shop on city sidewalks and streets — a pandemic practice that the Democrat said has served as “much-needed lifeline” to eateries.

The law, which takes effect immediately, extends for another year an executive order signed by the governor letting municipal spaces such as sidewalks and streets be used for outdoor dining, which has allowed for physical distancing — and for New Yorkers to enjoy meals without risking spreading COVID-19, which is more easily transmitted indoors.

“As we build New York back better than it was before, it’s important that we learn from the past and capitalize on those efforts that helped so many of New York’s small businesses survive amid the global pandemic,” said Cuomo in a statement about the bill signing. 

“By extending the much-needed lifeline that allowed restaurants to use outdoor public spaces for seating during the pandemic, New York is ensuring that these small businesses will be able to continue to use these spaces as they work to rebuild and support the revitalization of the Empire State.”