Alfresco dining in New York will bring the city back to life.
In New York City, a significant percentage of the restaurants that are part of the reactivation program have given up a total of 8,550 parking spaces to dedicate to outdoor dining, according to city data.
These spaces, which are part of the public-owned sidewalks of New York, have been equipped with independent seats since the start of the covid-19 pandemic and will remain for a time, despite the fact that the spaces have already been reactivated. restaurant interiors.
Since last June, the City Council and the Department of Transportation gave permission to restaurant owners to build dining areas located outside their restaurants when eating inside was prohibited.
The mayor of the city of New York, Bill De Blasio, informed that from this month of May, the program of open-air dinners will be applied, which will be maintained throughout the year, with the aim of creating entertainment spaces for all New Yorkers.
Some 11,500 restaurants agreed to join the outdoor dining program, of which some 5,700 decided to take advantage of the streets for the outdoor dining program.
It is about more than eight thousand areas reformed in the five boroughs of New York, about 3 million lots that were used for parking, explained Mitch Schwartz, a spokesman for the City Council.
For the operators of the TRU Astoria café on Ditmars Boulevard, this has been quite a space-swapping experience, as the business has “more than doubled” since they installed dining tables along the sidewalk.
“Thank God we adjusted. The extended patio. The outdoor seating. To be able to use the street. It strengthened our brand ”stressed Yanni Stathakis, director of operations for Astoria Hospitality Group, which owns the restaurant.
Eating outdoors in restaurants that are not very crowded due to the virus, where tables outside are at an adequate distance, is safer than sharing meals inside commercial establishments.
The provision of alfresco dining during the coronavirus has also forced New York restaurants to invest in various alternatives that are attractive to the public, such as music events, as well as creating simple open patios, to keep businesses afloat.
Stathakis commented that Astoria Hospitality Group it has invested tens of thousands of dollars in outdoor dining at several of its restaurants; and that the owners of premises who did not do so, will have to bear the consequences.
“They did not adapt. They did not add delivery and they did not add any outdoor dining, “he said. “They are easy ducks. They do not know what to do. It’s unfortunate “.
However, the majority of citizens agree with this strategy and support the exchange of parking space for outdoor dining.
“Restaurants need to survive! I think it was the best solution ”, said Steve P., a resident of Astoria, who has worked in the city his entire life.
“We all have to commit. We have the best subway system. We should use it! It is cheaper than gasoline or the ticket ”, he insisted.
The City Council justified that the program has given the opportunity to countless restaurants to remain open, even more because of New Yorkers’ fear of closed spaces in the midst of covid-19.
“In the toughest year for small businesses in recent memory, the Open Restaurants program saved approximately 100,000 jobs. It claimed less than half of one percent of the city’s parking spots. Offers like that are hard to find in this city “Schwartz recalled in a statement.
with information from The New York Post.
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