The look of the city is about to change dramatically: Under new city regulations, the outdoor dining sheds that have become a distinctive part of the post-Covid landscape must come down by the end of the week.
Restaurants willing to meet new, tougher rules for the set-ups can put them back up in the Spring — but many have chosen not to do so.
The city’s new program aims to preserve popular elements of Covid-era outdoor dining set-ups while regulating and scaling them back to address quality of life concerns. While many enjoyed the outdoor eating option, there were complaints some of the sheds had grown unsightly and were a source of food for rats.
The new regulations do allow for sidewalk cafe seating year-round but only permits roadway dining from April 1 through November 29 each year.
If restaurants or other businesses don’t comply, they risk fines of up to $1,000.
New Yorkers may have noticed a change already. Many restaurants have already done away with their outdoor dining set-ups, after an August deadline for businesses to either apply to the new program or take down the outdoor seating.
Roughly 6,000 and 8,000 restaurants were operating outdoor set-ups during the pandemic — but only around half of that number have applied for the new program, according to numbers from the city’s Department of Transportation, which oversees the program.
Over 6,000 restaurants were operating outdoor set-ups during the pandemic. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
The DOT has received about 3,660 license applications for the program, Dining Out NYC, from nearly 3,000 restaurants, with almost 1,600 for sidewalk-only seating, around 740 for roadway-only dining and over 670 applications for both.
Mayor Adams addressed the dive in participating restaurants during a Tuesday press briefing.
“Anytime you execute something new, there’s a slow start-up,” Adams said. “Some people are still getting through the application process. Some people say, do I still want to do the outdoor dining? Is it still profitable, etc.? And then it moves forward. But to all of a sudden say, well, okay, it’s a drop-off, so now you have to take the blame. No, no, I don’t.”
A spokesperson for the City Council, which voted to pass the program last year, noted that more than twice as many restaurants are participating in outdoor dining than in pre-Covid times.
“The new permanent outdoor dining program strikes the right balance for restaurants, neighborhoods, and New Yorkers to continue dining outside under a system where laws now apply and there is no pandemic-related state of emergency,” Mara Davis, spokesperson for the Council said.
When roadside dining returns in April, restaurants must install lighter, more portable set-ups, per the new design requirements.
