What’s the Future of Outdoor Dining in New York? As the city debates a plan to make outdoor dining permanent, vocal opposition is growing in affluent, restaurant-rich neighborhoods like the West Village.
It was an unexpectedly raucous event. About 100 people packed a hearing in Manhattan’s West Village in the summer, eager to vent about an issue dividing neighborhoods across New York City. The matter at hand: outdoor dining. As city officials presented a plan to make it permanent, resi-
dents waved matching signs with slogans like “Outdoor Dining Is Home Invasion.” They loudly booed an official who called outdoor dining a huge success. When another official said New York’s sidewalks have become some of the best dining options in the world, the audience screamed, “Rats!” “We’re just absolutely going out of our minds,” one resident said, to a roaring applause, “with the emotional dis- tress of every kind of quality-of-life issue you can imagine.” The fight in the West Village signals the challenges ahead for city officials as they seize on an opportunity to cod- ify one of the most transformative changes to the urban streetscape in recent decades. Starting later this month, officials will host citywide hearings for residents to say what they believe outdoor dining should look like in a post-pandemic world. FLORIDA RESTAURANT AND
LODGING ASSOCIATION JET ROCK FLOORING
ROBOT LAB HALPERNS’ POLAR KING ECOLAB SANI PROFESSIONAL RESTAURANT TECHNOLOGIES
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