Restaurant impossible
Villagers rally to ditch pandemic-era outdoor dining ‘sheds’
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
No one argues that restaurants
and restaurant
workers suffered considerably
with lost wages and
revenues during the COVID
shutdown when indoor dining
was not allowed.
The temporary emergency
program to save restaurants
and their workers started during
summer 2020 with outdoor
seating on sidewalks and
roadway sheds, allowing for
a safer environment for New
Yorkers to dine out during the
pandemic. The program also
brought life to the monthsdeserted
streets.
However, restaurant sheds
are appearing now not so much
a blessing but rather a curse.
Especially in the Village, which
doesn’t just have an occasional
outdoor shed.
Aside from defeating the
purpose of good ventilation,
Stuart Waldman of CUEUP
(Coalition United for Equitable
Urban Policy), host of a Village
protest rally on Saturday, Feb.
5, lists why a permanent Open
Restaurants program is a public
nuisance not a public benefi t:
rat infestation, impeding pedestrian
LOCAL NEWS
A protest sign seen at Father Demo Square.
traffi c, snarls street traffi c,
noise, mounds of trash.
For the most part complaints
through the City’s 311 complaint
portal go unattended or
there are little enforcements for
issued warnings.
CUEUP believes that the
sheds represent privatizing
public space.
Under the temporary program,
various aspects of regulations
fell to different agencies
from FDNY, to noise-NYPD, to
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
DOT. The proposed permanent
program is under DOT.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, 100
concerned Villagers gathered at
Bleecker and 6th to voice their
distress how these sheds have
severely impacted the quality of
life in the Village.
Braving the bitter February
afternoon, the lively group left
Father Demo Square walking
MacDougal, Bleecker to
Thompson Street, which is one
of the streets almost completely
lined with sheds. They chanted,
“No more sheds!” as they
marched to the Washington
Square Park rally.
“I am disheartened by what it
looks like now,” said Assemblywoman
Deborah Glick to those
assembled at the Arch. “Yes!”
was shouted from the crowd.
Glick continued, “All of us supported
the emergency measures
to save our restaurants! And
we’re not past COVID so we
still need to support those restaurants.
But it cannot be a permanent
fi xture.”
“There was a time and place
for open restaurants. That time
and place has gone,” added
Councilmember Chris Marte
who also spoke citing the real
estate industry pitting groups
against each other.
Hindering fi re engine and
hydrant access is another grave
concern, “Last year, we could
have had a catastrophe on
Thompson St. where a fi re truck
couldn’t open its doors,” he said.
Furthermore, the public
has witnessed in the past yearand
half sheds collapsing,
abandoned, sheds fi lled with
garbage, sheds used as delivery
bicycle parking spaces, outdoor
seating too close to hydrants,
and spaces used as storage for
tables and the planters.
DOT says they don’t want sheds in
permanent outdoor eats program
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The omnipresent restaurant
curbside sheds
could become a thing
of the past under the city’s
plans to make the pandemic
era outdoor dining
initiative permanent.
The Department of Transportation’s
Open Restaurants
Program director told the
New York City Council that
the curbside eateries will be
less heavily-constructed than
those that restaurant owners
have built outside their
establishments around the
Five Boroughs.
“We don’t envision sheds
in the permanent program,
we’re not planning for that,”
said Julie Schipper during the
virtual Feb. 8 oversight hearing.
“What would be in the
roadway is barriers and tents
or umbrellas, but not these full
houses that you’re seeing in
the street.”
The DOT rep said that the
structures were no longer necessary
because people don’t
have to dine outside anymore
like they did early on during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Something we saw over
COVID is you cannot eat indoors
and so you had to eat
outside in all weather, but
that won’t be the case going
forward,” she said. “This program
is really being planned
for a post-COVID scenario
where you can dine outside
when that feels nice and comfortable
but you won’t need to
be in a house on a street.”
Many restaurants have set
up elaborate sheds outside
their businesses, sometimes
decorated in designs matching
their main buildings.
But all of them will have to
reapply for the program come
2023 and current structures
won’t be grandfathered in,
said Schipper.
DOT Commissioner Ydanis
Rodriguez said they’re still
working on the specifi cs for
the new outdoor dining setups.
“When it comes to how
their structure will look like,
The outdoor eating area at the Empire Diner in Chelsea.
we are still in the process and
we will put together a sample
on how that structure can look
like,” he said.
The Transportation Department
took hours of questions
from city lawmakers
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
and the public Tuesday about
their and the Department of
City Planning’s (DCP) proposed
legislation to make the
temporary initiative to allow
eateries to expand onto the
street permanent.
Schneps Media February 10, 2022 3