You are reading

City’s Open Restaurants Outdoor Dining Program Will Return Next Year

Curbside seating at Dawa’s in Sunnyside (Photo: Asha MacKay)

Aug. 3, 2020 By Allie Griffin

The city will bring back its open restaurants outdoor dining program next June — or even earlier, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.

The program, which converts parts of city streets and sidewalks to dining areas, is set to expire on Oct. 31. De Blasio said the initiative will return next year, beginning June 1 or perhaps earlier in the spring.

“Expect to see that wonderful outdoor dining back next year,” he said during a morning press conference. “We may even extend it further, earlier in the spring.”

Under the initiative, restaurant owners can set up tables and seating for customers along sidewalks and curbside–where cars typically park. They can also create dining areas on select streets that close to traffic on weekends– as part of the “Open Streets: Restaurants” program.

Queens streets that close to traffic on weekends for outdoor dining (DOT)

The outdoor dining options have helped the more than 9,000 restaurants enrolled in the program keep afloat during the pandemic and gave a projected 80,000 New Yorkers their jobs back since June, de Blasio said.

“A lot of restaurants have been able to survive because of this initiative,” he said. “And a lot of people have been able to get their jobs back.”

The full street closures where roadways are turned into outdoor dining plazas on weekends, as well as curbside dining, will return next summer.

“It’s time to start a new New York City tradition,” de Blasio said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve the chance to enjoy their meals outside next summer, and restaurants deserve the chance to continue building their businesses back.”

However it isn’t immediately clear if the expedited permit process for sidewalk and curbside dining — where restaurant owners can self-certify online at no cost — will also make a comeback in 2021.

Indoor dining, meanwhile, has been shuttered indefinitely. It was slated to reopen on July 6, but the city postponed it with no word on when it will happen.

Outdoor dining in Chinatown (DOT via Twitter)

email the author: [email protected]

One Comment

Click for Comments 
ASensibleMan

Great, so the handful of restaurants that are left after The Bozo Brothers Cuomo and DeBlasio get done with their utterly pointless lockdown can have outdoor dining.

Lockdowns do nothing. Open the restaurants!

2
1
Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

MTA seizes 19 ‘ghost’ cars registered to toll violators at Queens Midtown Tunnel on Monday

Two days before the MTA Board approved the controversial congestion pricing plan for Manhattan on Wednesday, the agency cracked down on persistent toll violators at the Queens Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels seized 19 vehicles registered to persistent scofflaws on Monday and issued 81 summonses and confiscated two fraudulent incense plates. The MTA noted that the scofflaws accounted for approximately $483,000 in combined unpaid tolls and fees. One of the top persistent toll violators from the targeted enforcement owed nearly $76,000 in tolls and fees.