Influence a policy that actually affects your life: outdoor dining
Plus: NYC Politics 101 event next week, August 29!
Hot takes are my own and not the views of Manhattan Community Board 5
Two things you might have started to notice in the last month:
Outdoor dining structures being dismantled
Signs in your neighborhood asking for your input on outdoor dining
That’s because new rules for outdoor dining went into effect earlier this year. Outdoor dining structures that are out of compliance will start getting fined. As a result, many restaurants are dismantling their outdoor dining now. And community boards are starting to solicit feedback from neighbors on their experience before recommending new outdoor dining permits.
What are the new rules for outdoor dining in NYC?
Sidewalk cafes and roadway cafes have different rules. Basically sidewalk cafes are on sidewalks, while roadway cafes are in curb lanes or parking lanes.
Roadway cafes can only operate in nice-weather months (April 1 - November 29), while sidewalk cafes are permitted year-round. This is a huge change. All the big outdoor dining installations, they’re coming down before the winter. And unless the restaurant has a place to store the materials for the winter, that installation is probably gone for good.
Some of the most common complaints during the temporary COVID outdoor dining period were about noise, rats, abandoned structures, and blockages. So the new rules are focused on those things. For example, there’s rules to make sure that outdoor dining doesn’t impede pedestrian flow or accessibility. So seating has to be a certain number of feet away from street trees and curb cuts.
It’s important that we have rules regulating outdoor dining– since we coexist in tight quarters in this city, we all care a lot about use of space, about noise, and about hygiene. These are important elements in our quality of life.
So rules are good— they govern how outdoor dining affects quality of life. And as always, we hope that we’ve elected the right people and given them the right tools to get effective policy passed and implemented. Our elected officials collaborated with advocacy groups, business, and community organizations to to nail down the new policy and then DOT went through another rigorous process to formulate the rules for implementation.
And here’s where we are today: policy implementation. Where the rubber meets the road. It’s like launching a new product. Like a new product, the policy even has a sweet logo and brand (see below). Like a new product, there was this big years-long planning process leading up to the launch, and now we find out: Will all the restaurants reapply for new permits (answer = no)? What crazy unintended consequences will come out of nowhere? As community members, we’re the consumers of this policy, so we have a huge role to play.
Here’s how the process works and how you can influence it.
All restaurants have to apply for a new Dining Out permit
The new rules created an application process that requires public review and approval of all outdoor dining proposals. It goes like this:
Restaurant submits application to NYC DOT.
Community board gathers neighborhood feedback. Community board submits recommendation to DOT (e.g. approval, denial).
If the community board recommends denial or substantial modification, DOT will conduct a second public hearing.
DOT submits approval (or approval with modifications) to the City Council.
Even after NYC DOT files its decision with the City Council, the City Council can still decide to review the petition.
The role of the community board in Dining Out applications
Let’s zoom in on Step #2: “Community board gathers neighborhood feedback.” Here’s how it happens on my community board, though it might differ slightly for other community boards. I’m on the committee that reviews these, so I get assigned a handful of restaurant applications to work on. It’s my job to work with my team and the applicant to eventually be able to submit this form to DOT (below). I put in comments and my team can recommend to approve, recommend to deny, or recommend an approval with modifications.
How do I gather information to be able to come to a recommendation?
I post these NOTICE signs (see below) in a block radius around the proposed outdoor dining area, including in and around the surrounding residential buildings. The hope is that people who live on the block will see the signs and submit their input to the community board.
I use this data map to check whether there’s been 311 complaints about that restaurant/bar or on that block.
If there’s a ton of negative feedback about a restaurant/bar, my team can try to negotiate with the operator to fix the issues (e.g. earlier closing hours for noise issues). It’s in the operator’s best interest to work with the community because the operator really wants to bypass Step #3 above: “If the community board recommends denial or substantial modification, DOT will conduct a second public hearing”. That second hearing may involve additional layers of review by the fire department, the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. So better to negotiate with the community board to save the time and money associated with the additional review.
How you can influence Dining Out NYC
Why continued input is critical:
This is a brand new policy! We’re in implementation mode. When the rubber meets the road, that’s when local government finds the kinks that still need working out.
Being supportive of outdoor dining is just as powerful as pointing out the flaws. On the first Dining Out application I worked on, there was only one neighbor comment. Just one. And it was in favor of the outdoor dining at this location. Which influenced our recommendation to approve the proposal.
If you notice bad behavior by an outdoor dining establishment, holding them accountable is important for the health of the overall system. In the temporary outdoor dining phase, there were some restaurants that abandoned their structures and others that created unsafe or clogged street situations. That bad behavior made their neighbors angry, and led to headlines like this: “New Yorkers Are Packing Community Board Meetings to Oppose Outdoor Dining.” If we want outdoor dining to continue to flourish, there needs to be accountability for the few, so they don’t ruin the experience for the rest.
How to do it:
Look out for those posted notices and write in about particular establishments– you can write in and say “I totally support this application– this restaurant is a gem in the neighborhood.”
Report to 311 when you notice issues with outdoor dining establishments.
Keep in touch with groups like Open Plans and Regional Plan Association that advocated to improve the policy when it was in the design stage. Now that we’re in implementation, there’s already been numerous articles about how the new standards are too onerous and less equitable. Let advocacy groups know what you’re seeing so they can lead the charge if additional policy tweaks are needed.
PLUS come join NYC Politics 101 LIVE
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No? Join NYC Politics 101 for a primer, and become that friend!
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Either way, come on out!
I’ll share a short overview of NYC politics on August 29 at 6pm, both in person and on Zoom. Open New York is hosting at their office in Tribeca, and it’s open to non Open New York members as well– truly anyone who wants to get more civically engaged or just learn!
The more the merrier- invite your least civically engaged friend for this beginner-friendly primer!
RSVP here!
