Open restaurants are here to stay as both sides of City Hall shake hands

The agreement between Adams the mayor (Eric) and Adams the City Council speaker (Adrienne) to make permanent New York’s successful outdoor dining took longer than we had hoped, but a deal is a deal and this is a good one. Raise a glass to both leaders.

Under the legislation that should be voted on next month by the Council, the COVID emergency open restaurant program that used streets and sidewalks for al fresco meal service will give way to a new, regular system.

Restaurants, which have been able to have seating on the roadbed and sidewalks free of charge for the last three years of COVID, will be charged an annual fee for using the public space based on how many square feet their tables and chairs take up. The street fee will range from $5 per square foot covering 80% of the city, to the most crowded sectors of Manhattan, where it will be $25 per square foot. The fees for sidewalks will be from 20-30% higher, as sidewalks will be available year round, while all structures in the roadway must be removed during the four coldest and snowiest months of December, January, February and March.

So while outdoor dining will not be continuous during the year on the street, it will be so on the sidewalks. That’s a fair compromise.

To measure how popular the ad hoc program has been, pre-COVID there were about 1,200 or so traditional sidewalk cafes, almost all in Manhattan, where restaurateurs paid fairly steep fees for the privilege. That number increased by an order of magnitude, to 12,000, during COVID, with many of them wanting to continue as the public health emergency has lapsed. The new set of fees will be lower than the pre-COVID fees, which help dissuade many restaurants from using their adjacent sidewalks for seating.

As for the often ramshackle sheds, they will be gone, with guidelines for acceptable structures being created. We want only human diners to be enjoying their meals, and not filthy roaches, rats and pigeons.