NYC's Outdoor Dining Sheds Could End As Program Goes Permanent

NEW YORK CITY — They kept restaurants afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. They sprang up on streets across the five boroughs. They sheltered hungry New Yorkers through blizzards and heat waves.

But outdoor sheds might not carry over into New York City's permanent planned al fresco dining program, officials said this week.

Instead, roadway barriers, tents and umbrellas could take the place of outdoor sheds in the future, said Julie Schipper, the Department of Department official who heads the program, the New York Post first reported.

“We don’t envision sheds in the permanent program," she said, according to the Post.

Schipper's testimony came amid a marathon, nearly nine-hour City Council hearing on the outdoor dining program's future.

Roughly 11,000 restaurants certified for outdoor dining under an emergency program designed to help eateries during the coronavirus pandemic. The program, along with its sister Open Streets initiative, has radically reshaped the city's streets.

Thousands of restaurants have built outdoor structures to give diners sheltered places to chow down.

Outdoor dining proved popular among New Yorkers, with only 17 percent surveyed opposing using street space for restaurants, according to a DOT study. Nine of 10 restaurant owners and operators surveyed said their future hinges on outdoor dining, a NYC Hospitality Alliance release states.

“Outdoor dining was an absolute lifeline for restaurants and bars that were financially devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Andrew Rigie, who heads the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in a statement. “Since its inception, the Open Restaurants Program has saved 100,000 industry jobs and thousands of small businesses from financial collapse, and an overwhelming majority of hospitality customers love it.”

But many vocal neighborhood officials and residents have argued that outdoor dining, especially the sheds, have clogged streets and sidewalks, created noise issues and overall drove down quality of life.

Some of these critics voiced similar complaints during the recent City Council hearing.

The gripes don't appear likely to cancel permanent outdoor dining, however. Council members spent the bulk of the hearing hashing out how the city will handle such a program in the future, not whether officials should make it permanent.

The Council will vote on two bills covering outdoor dining's future at a later date.

Read the full New York Post report here.

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