Andrew Rigie Testimony: NYC Hospitality Alliance

We are a not-for-profit association that represents restaurants and bars across the five boroughs.

And I'd like to thank you for uh having this hearing today and having us testify.

So Dining Out NYC promised to make New York City's Alfresco dining the envy of the world, turning streetscapes into vibrant public spaces, supporting small businesses, protecting jobs, and building the nation's premier outdoor dining program.

But that promise is slipping.

Just 3,000 restaurants have applied, according to the Department of Transportation's press release from February.

Far fewer than the 13,000 that participated during the pandemic, or even the six to eight thousand estimated to still be operating in the summer of 2024.

Many of these small businesses face steep regulatory and financial hurdles.

This summer we may see little more outdoor dining than we did before the uh pandemic when there are approximately 1,200 licensed sidewalk cafes, and they will still mostly be located south of 90 Strict 6th Street in Manhattan.

That's failing the new program's goal of citywide equity, which was a hallmark of the pandemic era program and which lawmakers sought to replicate.

So, before the pandemic, for example, the Bronx had just 26 sidewalk cafes.

During the pandemic, that number surged to about 1,010 outdoor dining setups, including both sidewalk and roadway cafes.

Now, under the new Dining Out NYC program, that figure has dropped dramatically to around 78.

According to DOT data, there are currently only 2,491 restaurants with outdoor dining citywide.

Compared to the previous pandemic numbers, that's 7,300 fewer roadway cafes, 9,600 fewer sidewalk cafes, and about 10,300 fewer restaurants offering outdoor dining overall.

Even with 100 or 1,000 applications still in the pipeline, no matter how you slice and dice the data, it's clear the outdoor dining revolution we are hoping for is not here.

But now's not the time to point blame and fingers.

Today is the time for the mayor and the city council to join us at let's call it the outdoor dining table and fulfill the bold vision of dining out NYC.

I'm going to briefly outline seven reforms we're proposing to help achieve this goal, and then our council Rob Bookman, who has decades of experience with outdoor dining, we'll get into some more of the specifics, and you'll hear from local restaurateurs about the different challenges that they've faced and their experience with outdoor dining.

Number one, year-round outdoor dining in the roadway.

Making the program seasonal was a big problem.

We said this from the beginning, we knew it would happen.

It's too expensive to set up outdoor dining, then take it down, store it during the winter months, only to set it up again as cost prohibitive for small businesses.

We need to reduce fees across the board.

I know there's a lot of concerns in specific neighborhoods.

I see council member Brewer, who I recall in these chambers, voiced her concern about why in her neighborhood it costs more than in every other neighborhood for the most part.

Uh, but I think uh Chair Menon, you uh have some of the highest fees as well in your district as well for restaurants to participate.

Sidewalk cafe enclosures where restaurants are paying for a year-round license but unable to use it because they can't winterize it with an enclosure, has been a major problem.

Clearances, you'll hear from restaurateurs about reduced clearances compared to what they used to have, has reduced their outdoor dining and posed big problems.

The application process, as the chair expressed, uh, has had many challenges.

Scaffolding, which we're always talking about, getting it down.

I think it was from Manhattan to Montreal.

If you lined up all the scaffolding, I know uh uh uh Commissioner Otto's working hard to get it down.

The council passed some bills, the mayor signed, but there's still issues related to scaffolding and outdoor dining, and the processing time, as was expressed, is taking way too long.

Now, notwithstanding that, I do want to give a shout out to some of the people, particularly Penny Ringel over at DOT, who's been working really hard and is very responsive.

Um, so while there certainly are challenges, we also want to recognize people that are trying to make the best out of a challenging situation.

And that's why we need reform.

And in closing, what I will just say is that New York City still has the potential to build a world class outdoor dining program, but only if the city leaders collectively come together and fix the reform and propose and enact reforms.

Without this, we're going to risk squandering a once in a generation opportunity to build the best outdoor dining program that benefits restaurants, workers, communities they serve, and create a lot of economic activity for the city and reach the promise of not only having the greatest restaurants anywhere in the world, but the greatest outdoor dining anywhere in the world.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Rob Bookman.

I'm a counsel to the New York City Hospitality Alliance, one of its founding members.