When New York City announced new rules to formalize and standardize its outdoor dining program, Megan Rickerson, the owner of Someday Bar in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, wanted to do everything right.
She hired a lawyer, applied on time, paid deposits and fees to various city agencies, attended a public hearing, presented her plans before the local community board, expanded her bar’s insurance policy and dropped a few thousand dollars along the way. After declining an offer from a contractor that quoted her a cost of $86,000 for a roadway dining structure that complied with the new rules, she was able to hire another one for a third of the price.
“I’m out $30,000. That’s before I can even put one table down,” Ms. Rickerson said, estimating that maintaining outdoor dining will cost her $48,000 over four years. “ Think about how many chicken tenders you have to sell to hit $48,000.”
The city had instructed businesses that they would have to reapply by August of last year to replace their ad hoc outdoor dining setups, some of which had lingered since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with uniform, modular structures, or risk fines. Many owners were wary of the new program, worrying that the costs of participating would be too onerous.
Now, nearly two weeks into the program’s first season, city data shows that most of them did not bother — and those who did receive permits described a complicated and expensive ordeal.
“It was kind of presented as a lifeline, and then you get into it and you’re like, ‘Wow, I think I’ve been duped,’” Ms. Rickerson said. “If you had known upfront what it would entail, would you have done it? Because I can tell you my answer would’ve been no.”
Only about 3,400 of the city’s more than 20,000 restaurants have applied for sidewalk or roadway dining permits under the new program, according to the city’s Department of Transportation. By April 8, just 32 had received full approval for a roadway structure. The department has granted conditional approval for 623 roadway structures and about 1,850 sidewalk cafes, allowing businesses to construct their setups while their applications are processed.
Most of the establishments with roadway permits are concentrated in wealthier areas. As of March 26, 59 percent were in Manhattan, 34 percent in Brooklyn, 6 percent in Queens, 1 percent in the Bronx and none on Staten Island, according to a report from the nonprofit Open Plans, which advocates livable streets. At the peak of the pandemic-era outdoor dining program, which the city authorized on an emergency basis to keep businesses afloat, at least 12,500 restaurants had “streeteries,” and they were equitably distributed citywide, according to data from the comptroller’s office.
The new guidelines, released after much negotiation, sought to address longstanding complaints from some residents and elected officials — including Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who is now running for mayor — that dining structures blocked parking spots and often deteriorated into eyesores full of trash.
The rules ban fully enclosed structures with hard roofs, allowing only umbrellas or sun sails that don’t protect against rain. The setups are required to be lightweight and easily removable in case of inclement weather or street cleaning. Restaurants must stabilize them with water-filled barriers instead of sandbags, which had seemed to incentivize rats to build nests.
Crucially, the program also became seasonal: Roadway dining would be allowed only between April 1 and November 29.
“The seasonality really deterred participation,” said Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. “It’s cost-prohibitive for many small restaurants to build a streetery, pay to have it disassembled, pay again to store it over the winter months and pay again to have it set up the following spring.”
Tony Simone, a state assemblyman who represents a district on Manhattan’s West Side, introduced a bill late last month that would allow outdoor dining year-round. “New Yorkers loved the program,” he said in a statement announcing the bill, but the new regulations “have nearly killed it.”
The issue has also made its way into this year’s mayoral race. Brad Lander, the city comptroller, who has been a vocal supporter of outdoor dining and is running in the Democratic primary, announced a plan on April 1 to remove the seasonal limitations and ease the application process. Several other candidates have also said they support year-round outdoor dining.
Selvena Brooks-Powers, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said the Council had “prioritized striking a balance that would remain accessible and affordable to restaurant owners while still establishing a necessary level of regulation that did not exist when laws were suspended under the pandemic-era emergency order.”
Antonia Joannides, the owner of the restaurant Queen’s Room in Astoria, didn’t even consider applying for a roadway permit this year. She had put some $60,000 toward outdoor dining in 2020: for contractors to build a handsome wooden structure that would serve as an extension of the restaurant, and for new tables, plates and silverware.
By the time she took it down, she thought it was probably for the best. The structure had become a “dirty disaster rat hotel,” she said, and “it honestly became harder and harder for the kitchen to keep up with 20 more tables.”
When the permanent program was announced, she worried that the city was unprepared to roll it out smoothly. “There was no way we were going to spend money on something that was so up in the air,” Ms. Joannides said.
Instead, she received a permit to set out tables on the sidewalk, which was simpler and cheaper, though it means fewer seats and comes with its own restrictions.
Despite the expense, for many restaurants, forgoing roadway dining entirely was not an option. The day before the season began, Brandon Longo was waiting for the owners of two cars to move them out of the street space designated for Elder Greene, his bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, so that he could begin constructing a shed. He called 311. An operator told him to wait until Thursday, when the cars would have to move for street cleaning.
“Two days for us with the structure as opposed to two days without it is, for us, 45-some-odd seats in the road,” he said. “You’re talking about doubling your capacity. It’s enormous.”
Ms. Joannides sympathized with other business owners who felt pressure to get their outdoor operations up and running. “Everybody wants to just sit outside and have their glass of rosé,” she said. “So I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to make sure they can do that, and I don’t get in trouble somehow for it.”
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