A restaurant's pandemic-era outdoor dining, left, extends onto a sidewalk in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood, Monday Aug. 7, 2023, in New York. New York City's roadway dining sheds, a pandemic innovation, are coming under new rules for design and seasonality. that popped up around New York City and allowed many restaurants to stay in business when they couldn't have diners inside.
City officials have now taken steps toward making outdoor dining a permanent part of the New York City streetscape, but with conditions. Earlier this month the New York City Council passed legislation that would create a system allowing businesses to set up dining sheds on city streets for April through November and to remove them in the winter months., as it was pre-pandemic. Now, it's allowed in more parts of the city.
“Of all the doom and gloom in the pandemic, one of the bright spots was outdoor dining,” he said. “By utilizing a little area in the roadway, you’re able to create a whole new experience for people that are going to dine out, people that are walking around." “For residents, it's less curb space, less sidewalk space, less roadbed space, less space to get up and down the block, less quiet, less emergency access, it's just less,” he said. “It’s more for one industry, less for everybody else.”
“We’re happy that New York's moving in the direction," he said. It's"a bit more European, where we have people sitting outside, makes the street a little more lively." Sitting next to her, Daniel Laitman disagreed. “I like them," he said. “If it's too hot inside from the ovens, it's a cool space — and if it's not that hot, then it's like a breeze coming in from everywhere.”