City Council set to make the shanty emergency program a permanent one even though the emergency is about to end

Queens Eagle

Permanent al fresco dining is now one step closer to becoming a reality in Queens and the rest of the city after the City Council approved a bill amending the city’s zoning laws Thursday.

While the council passed a text amendment that eliminates zoning restrictions for sidewalk cafes throughout the five boroughs, just how the city’s permanent outdoor dining program will ultimately look is still very much up for debate.

City legislators passed the text amendment 43 to 6, with one member abstaining. In Queens, Councilmembers James Gennaro and Robert Holden voted against the amendment, which only sets the table for a permanent outdoor dining program but doesn’t actually create one. All other Queens councilmembers voted in support of the amendment.

“This new local law will be kind of too broad in the sense that it’s one size fits all,” Gennaro told the Eagle. “Will it allow for the kind of granularity that you need to regulate something like this? My hunch is no, it won't.”

“I hope that I’m wrong,” he added. “Everyone has good intentions here but I’m wary.”

The appetite for the text amendment, which first made its way through community boards and borough boards throughout the city, has been mild – its strongest support has been in the City Council. Still, nearly every councilmember who spoke in support of the text amendment Thursday also expressed reservations.

“This program born of pandemic necessity has been a gift to our city in many ways. It was an economic lifeline and still is to many of our small businesses and it has now fundamentally changed how many dining establishments operate, and how New Yorkers utilize their public spaces,” said Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Ossé. “However, this program needs to ensure that our streets are for the people and not the rats. The rodent population growth has been undeniable and is clearly linked to outdoor dining.”

The sentiment was repeated by a number of councilmembers, including Queens Councilmember Linda Lee, who represents portions of Bayside Hills, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Fresh Meadows, Glen Oaks, Hollis, Hollis Hills, Holliswood, Little Neck, New Hyde Park, Oakland Gardens and Queens Village. 

 

Prez FDNY Union: "Lives in danger" from the road sheds

 Dear Neighbor and Allied Groups,

Below, please watch the video of Andrew Ansboro, President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, powerful statement on the road bed dining sheds. He clearly states "lives in danger".  You can read his statement here.

Tomorrow will be Mayor Adams' and City Council's first step to making Open Restaurant permanent. The torpedoing of this legislation is nothing shocking. The Hospitality Alliance and Open Plans New York have been lobbying hard for this to happen. But, tomorrow will be one of the only chances for the public to push back.

Please take to time to provide testimony tomorrow on Zoom or via written testimony (by Thurs 11:59 PM). The how-to-do-this is laid out below. Or, click here.    If the text amendment passes, our streets will forever be altered, and our quality of life upended. This is not hyperbolic. Department of Transportation will be granted enormous amounts of power and latitude to dictate the future of our streets. City Council is not only ceding our lands to one business sector and landlords but diminishing their checks and balances over DOT. The amendments (and there are quite a few scheduled) on the table tomorrow will allow DOT full rule-making authority with very little oversight. 

**Sign up anyway just in case (as opposed to Open Restaurant amendment)  with a backup plan to submit written testimony by the deadline (or do both). Tomorrow will be a long day of testimony. Over 100 people have registered so far, but we fear it is mostly Hospitality and Open Plans NY members and supporters. So help stack the deck our way!

Check this out too:

Today's Good Read (comment sections are pile-on from real estate, hospitality, and bike fanatics)
Potential for Permanent Crisis as Protests Continue over Open Restaurants

Mayor Adams literally broke bread with Andrew Rigie of the Hospitality Alliance on Sunday along with the two City Council co-chairs ahead of tomorrow's hearing.

Onward and thank you!

 

HOW TO TESTIFY OR SUBMIT WRITTEN TESTIMONY

Public testimony will begin immediately following the testimony of any invited experts and will be limited to two minutes per person to allow as many people as possible to present their views.

Members of the public can sign up to testify via Zoom Web or phone at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing. Translators are available, see sign-up ASAP. Please check your SPAM for a confirmation email.  *SKIP THE UPLOAD TESTIMONY QUESTION PORTAL OPEN NOW!

The hearing will be webcast live at https://council.nyc.gov/livestream. (See Virtual Room 1.) Submit written testimony to the Council by uploading it to https://council.nyc.gov/testify or by emailing it directly to testimony@council.nyc.gov. Deadline is 72 hours after the hearing has been adjourned. CLICK the arrow for the CHEAT SHEET that includes how to log-in and attend links, abstract of the legislation, and food for thought. https://bit.ly/cheat-sheet-textamendment-hearing

 

 

The blowback blight and anarchy from NYC's Open Restaurants Law

 

 

Impunity City

Since eating indoors was still a major risk of contagion for months on end last year, City Council and Mayor de Blasio addressed the existential threat the virus had on the dining and drinking industry and started the Open Restaurants initiative which lifted restrictions and eased regulations for restaurants to build sheds on the street curbs so patrons can come back and dine again outside of their establishments. Despite usurping parking spaces from residents, these businesses were able to recoup some losses and were able to make money again. The city also integrated this program with the Open Streets initiative to “re-imagine” public streets initially centered on cycling and pedestrian commuting by evolving them to plazas with the intent to foster community activity and keeping vehicular traffic out (both initiatives annoyingly prodded by bike zealot/car abolitionist lobby Transportation Alternatives). With the sheds on the asphalt, restaurants were able to extend their businesses by placing tables on the street, enabling to serve more customers. At the time it was logical and necessary.

Even though this was enacted for emergency purposes to keep businesses thriving in a still near dead city (with more prodding from agent of the city TransAlt weaponizing this program to banish cars)  the City Council Cronies and The Blaz decided to make restaurant outdoor sheds permanent, which was buoyed by a bill written by the State Senate and signed by Mario’s Son Governor Cuomo. Now even though restaurants are under the regulatory purview of the Department of Health, the Blaz left the responsibility of monitoring the street sheds under the Department Of Buildings. If this isn’t bizarre enough, the Department of Transportation seems are wholly left out of this even though the streets are officially under their purview. And as expected with the Blaz and the Council Cronies, they conjure these laws without considering the ramifications of them as some restaurants and even non-food related establishments opportunistically took advantage of the bureaucratic fugazi of  NYC’s Open Restaurants and Streets policy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manhattan's open restaurants shanties inspired by Queens Crap

These look like Fedders apartments!

Great job #OpenRestaurantsNYC!!! https://t.co/hUNoXdB6dv pic.twitter.com/zXmfYacygy

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) August 19, 2021

Communties are sick of the restaurant shanties

 

 

 CBS New York

 The city’s plan to make outdoor dining permanent is meeting a lot of resistance from local residents.

They say noise, rats and lack of space are just some of the problems, CBS2’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas reported Monday.

Residents in the West Village sounded off to the community board that is tasked with providing input on what will be the regulations for the new law. They said they want to support their local businesses, but when the pandemic is over the outdoor dining structures should be gone, too.

The structures have been a lifesaver for restaurants. They are so popular, the city is making the pandemic additions permanent.

But some residents say they have become a nuisance.

“These sheds are creating a vermin habitat like we’ve never seen before,” Lee Arntzen said.

“Noise comes with this and it shouldn’t be on this street, certainly not on a narrow residential street,” Stu Waldman said.

“It’s like a bandshell pointing at your bedroom. That’s the kind of noise,” Leslie Clark added.

Cellphone video shows how the neighborhood transforms, especially on the weekends — music blasting as large crowds dance outside, structures leaving little room to walk on the sidewalk, and the mounds of trash left behind that residents say attract rats.

“I have to walk on the subway grates and with my cane it makes me fearful,” Dorothy Green said.

In a statement, the mayor’s office said in part, “Outdoor dining saved 100,000 jobs. A stance against outdoor dining is a stance against this city’s recovery. It’s here to stay.”

That’s a sentiment city leaders tried to reinforce during Monday’s presentation to Community Board 2.

“The program has been a massive success and in April the City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill to make it permanent,” the Department of Transportation’s Judy Chang said to boos from the crowd.

NYC Plans To Make Eating & Drinking Road + Sidewalk Sheds Permanent

 

 

 Neighborhoods United

Dear Neighbor,
We wanted to make you aware that the Department of Transportation is initiating a public meeting at every Community Board in the city to push through the ZONING TEXT CHANGES that will allow Open Restaurants and Bars to become PERMANENT. 

In many areas,  the eating and drinking sheds have become severely problematic. As such, we are adamantly opposed to Outdoor Dining Sheds becoming a permanent fixture in NYC. 

We appreciate that these sheds were a lifeline for the hospitality industry during the pandemic and allowed residents a safe place to social distance. Since Covid restrictions have been lifted, we think it is time for the emergency dining sheds to be retired, and the sidewalk cafe process is reinstated regarding alfresco dining.

However, you feel about the Open Restaurants program, no public input or proper environmental impact study was commissioned. Instead, the city rammed the sheds through behind closed doors with little to no oversight, calling it an unbridled success with few issues to resolve. And agencies, like the Dept. of Transportation, testified two weeks ago that there was no increase in noise or any other quality of life or safety issues related to Open Dining Sheds. This is demonstratively false!

We now have the opportunity (and one last chance) to come out and voice our concerns.

WE URGE YOU TO SHOW UP! IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE BODIES AND VOICES IN THE ROOM!

Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee
Tuesday, July 13 at 6:30 pm
Boys Club of New York
287 East 10th Street (at Avenue A)

*Please attend all four upcoming citywide community board meetings, if you can?  Click here for more info about when and where.

FYI:

• Citywide Text Amendment: Open Restaurants (zoning changes to facilitate outdoor dining 
• Click here for the text amendment application

We appreciate your consideration, and please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Kind regards,

Diem Boyd, LES Dwellers
Tamara Daley, Orchard Street Block Association
Jan Lee,  The Chinatown Core
Stuart Zamsky, The East Fifth Street Block Association