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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Outdoor Dining in NYC Expands to 22 Streets to Help Struggling Restaurants

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By: Deidre MacElvee

Mom and Pop restaurants were hoping to reinstate indoor seating to sustain business, but after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that indoor restaurants were to suspend indoor seating, business owners were put in compromising positions about their businesses.

But Mayor Blasio reassured that he planned to open 22 streets (2.6 miles) throughout the boroughs of New York just in time for the 4th of July. To ensure restaurant owners can stay afloat, Mayor Blasio said, “We have to double down on Open Streets and Open Restaurants,” reported by Suzannah Cavanaugh from Crain’s New York Business. This method can be seen as a swift repair, being a substitute for indoor dining, but not practical to regain profit.

The mayor plans to permit restaurants along streets such as Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and Bronx’s Arthur Avenue to set up tables on Fridays from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday’s. Restaurant owners voiced their notions on why the city wasn’t helping or supporting these plans. Joshua Fazeli, the general manager for the iconic cabaret “Don’t Tell Mama” states his opinion, “We’re all buying our own canopies and getting our own umbrellas and stuff. Why didn’t the city come up with a plan for us? he said.

The following Thursday morning, the mayor stated that he had not apprehended that restaurants were struggling to collect supplies in time for Friday’s outdoor dining experience. De Blasio said, “…What they needed was the support to get it done cleanly and quickly,” Cavanaugh discusses in Crain’s New York Business, while other owners say that they are content on having a chance to stay open during the summer. During this unknown time, any chance to sustain business is being taken advantage of to the fullest, and without this outdoor opportunity, employment wouldn’t be possible.

Fazeli demonstrates the battle mom-and-pop restaurants have when it comes to making tough choices and that these struggles will communicate to the people what needs to happen to maintain small businesses. The owner of Enzo’s in the Bronx’s Little Italy, Maria Di Rende expresses that she has spent the past week setting up for the opening of her restaurant, spending money the business doesn’t have on umbrellas to assist 10 extra tables, excited to show her customers the layout, knowing she won’t be able to do outdoor seating alone.

“There is no restaurant out there that can possibly sustain this or stay afloat without 100% capacity,” said Di Rende, as was reported in Crian’s. Di Rende isn’t making money and is staying in to keep the confidence for her workers, not knowing how long she can last with the delay on indoor dining. Without the stream of tourists and benefactors, the inflated capacity hasn’t helped. Adjusting to the cities changes has only created stress for restaurant staff and owners.

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