By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-13 22:01:08 | Updated at 2026-08-13 23:01:15
1 hour ago
Just when we thought that New York City’s year-round, roadway-hogging, vermin- and drug addict-welcoming outdoor dining sheds were toast, the City Council brought them back on Thursday. The legislators swear the monstrosities will smell better than they did before.
Sure — the body that also voted to approve an “official” flag for Staten Island knows what’s best for all the boroughs’ eating habits.
The Council on Thursday approved four separate bills to allow 12-month dining structures on city streets. Current rules requiring them to be taken down from December through March, and design rules to make them easier on the eyes, are chopped liver.
Council speaker Julie Menin is the rare sane voice in what passes for municipal government under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. But Menin, who strongly endorsed the bills, is out to lunch this time.
Naturally, the restaurant industry is tickled pink. One Upper West Side bistro owner told the New York Times the new law was “a whole new ballgame for restaurants.”
It sure is. What’s an easier game for owners than adding seats at $5 per square foot in outer-borough neighborhoods where rent goes for $150 per square foot? Or $25 per square foot in mid-Manhattan, where an indoor lease costs up to $500 per square foot?
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York Hospitality Alliance, called the new rules “critically important reforms.” Why wouldn’t he? Rigie is an advocate for restaurant owners, a job he does very well.
But what about the rest of us 8.5 million New Yorkers?
The outdoor structures that sprang up in the summer of 2020 were lifesavers for the pandemic-battered restaurant industry. They gave locked-down New Yorkers a way to finally get out of their apartments.
But they outlived their usefulness by the end of that year when the infection rate fell to near-zero. Yet they continued to multiply, eventually clogging streets with up to 13,000 legal and illegal structures.
A friend who owns an Italian place in Midtown tore his mid-block shed down in 2021. The final straw came when he found a homeless couple feasting not on antipasti but on each other, just yards from the restaurant entrance.
New fines to make owners clean up their acts won’t cost them more than a pittance — if they’re enforced at all. One requires owners “to keep roadway and sidewalk cafes clean [and] free of trash, vermin and graffiti, with a first violation $200 and subsequent ones $500,” according to Council spokesman Henry Robins.
Wow, $200! Less than the cost of a Restaurant Week meal for two with drinks and a tip.
Another bill prohibits outdoor cafes from being used for anything other than serving customers, such as for storage. But what else will owners do with them in the depths of winter when no one in a right mind wants to forego a cozy dining room for a poorly heated roadway shed?
The agency in charge of approving year-round shed permits is the Department of Transportation, which will “finalize rule making and promptly publish update rules,” Robins said.
Given the DOT’s clout, it’s a wonder it won’t have a say in menus, too. Count on the agency to approve just about every year-round application — a way for the bike-lane-crazy car-haters to permanently remove parking spaces.
The city should focus instead on the indoor portion of restaurant, where owners are stymied by Con Ed, the FDNY and the buildings and health departments. Planned openings run months behind schedule thanks to bureaucrats’ tinkering, while owners pay big bucks for rent and staff waiting for something to do.
We’re in for a long winter, but we’ll have lots of outdoor cafes to choose from in the next blizzard.
