
6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 31, 2020
Restaurateurs push for outdoor
seating to keep business alive
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BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Ever since coronavirus
related restrictions
forced restaurateur Charlotta
Janssen to limit operations
to takeout and delivery
at her French bistro
Chez Oskar in Bedford-
Stuyvesant, business has
been tough to maintain.
Like so many other
eateries, customers have
become scarcer as Brooklynites
shelter indoors,
and many fi nd themselves
newly strapped for cash.
Recently, though, Janssen
has joined the growing
chorus of those pushing an
increasingly popular initiative
that could provide
locals a safe return to the
table-side service industry,
and throw a lifeline
to boutique restaurants
like hers: transforming
streets and sidewalks into
outdoor dining areas.
“What upsets me about
the narrative is that it’s
‘businesses or lives,’”
Janssen said. “But we
think it can be ‘business
and lives’ if it’s done in a
safe way.”
Her eatery at Malcolm
X Boulevard near Decatur
Street typically relies
on the revenue from the
busy summer months to
make it through the quieter
winter stretch, said
Janssen, who worried her
business will collapse if
she can’t start serving
more customers again.
“If we don’t get the
summer, we won’t survive
the winter,” she said.
Other cities around the
country and beyond have
already started similar
moves to give businesses
more leeway for al-fresco
dining.
The idea even has life
here in New York, where
land-use regulations are
typically stringent and
slow to change, as Mayor
Bill de Blasio said he was
“intrigued” by the idea.
Department of Transportation
Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg told the
Council that the city is
examining it, according
to Gothamist.
“It’s a very appealing
idea,” Mayor Bill de
Blasio said during an appearance
on NY1 on May
18. “I’m very intrigued —
the idea of using outdoor
space more, we have to
find out the formula to do
it safely.”
One cafe owner said
this would provide an opportunity
for cooped up
locals to safely get some
fresh air, while patronizing
struggling businesses
and helping restore the
shattered economy.
“Once you’re eating
outside, people have a
sense of fresh air and
they don’t feel clustered
in and fear of their neighbor
next to them,” said Jesus
Caicedo, the owner of
Skål, a Danish-inspired
cafe on Lewis Avenue.
The coffee shop at Macon
Street already has
some outdoor seating
fronting the building,
but having more space on
the sidewalk and parking
spaces would allow
Caicedo to move all his
customers outside, while
keeping the indoors for
his staff to work at a safe
distance.
“Keep the inside for
employees and avoid contact
and interaction, I
think that would be safer
for all involved,” he said.
Currently, restaurants
face varying levels of red
tape to use part of a sidewalk
for seating. If the area’s
zoning allows for it,
they have to get a permit
from the Department of
Consumer Affairs, along
with the go-ahead from
the State Liquor Authority
if they want to serve
booze.
Borough President Eric
Adams recently penned a
letter to de Blasio, asking
him to issue an executive
order to allow restaurants
to temporarily put seating
on sidewalks, in streetside
parking areas, and
bike lane-adjacent parking
spots — provided it
can be done in a way that’s
consistent with current
permits for sidewalk seating
but with six feet apart,
and regardless of zoning
designations.
The beep urged for the
measure immediately
lasting until at least mid-
October, which he said
would help stem the “urgent
crisis” facing struggling
businesses.
“I am writing regarding
the urgent crisis being
experienced by those
whose livelihoods depend
on the solvency of New
York City’s eating and
drinking establishments,”
Adams wrote on May 15.
“I urge you to issue an immediate
Executive Order
that allows all such establishments
to bring outside
seating to adjoining sidewalks
and curbside parking
lanes.”
Adams’ proposed order
would provide a quicklydeployable,
widely expanded
version of the
so-called Street Seats program
from the Department
of Transportation, where
businesses can use sidewalk
or parking spaces
after also going through a
multi-month process.
Adams’s Manhattan
counterpart, Gale
Brewer, has also called
on city transit gurus to
cut the red tape and rapidly
expand that program,
Streetsblog reported.
Likewise, former
Mayor Michael
Bloomberg’s philanthropic
organization
helped put together a
“Streets for Pandemic
Response and Recovery”
plan — which includes
plans for transforming
space previously demarcated
for cars into pedestrianized
plazas.
But it’s not just space
for outdoor eating that
could result from the pandemic.
Alternative transportation
activists and some
progressive politicians
are appealing to de Blasio
to also provide more
street space for pedestrians
and bicyclists —
which would help locals
avoid crowding in the
city’s parks and on public
transportation.
Hizzoner has been rolling
out his Open Streets
program piecemeal
across the city, but vast
parts of Brooklyn, such
as the borough’s entire
southern half, have seen
few streets closed to cars
so far.
Caicedo argued that
now is the time to give
residents in dense neighborhoods
more space
which could have lasting
changes even beyond the
pandemic.
“Usually people don’t
think of Bed-Stuy when
they think of outdoor seating,
they think of it more
in Fort Greene or the
West Village,” he said. “If
we get accustomed to it,
it would become normal
and it could be beneficial
for the community, businesses,
and the people. I
think it would be divine.”
Charlotta Janssen (center), the owner of Chez Oskar on Malcom X Boulevard, along with chef Octavio
Simancas (left) and general manager Angelique Calmet (right). Photo by Kevin Duggan