Chair Menin Questions DOT on Low Restaurant Application Rates
Chair Julie Menin asks DOT why only 3,200 restaurants applied for the permanent program compared to the 13,000 that participated during the pandemic peak.
We've responded to every email, we don't have a backlog, so we're actually being very responsive.
And if you know of any businesses or your colleagues that are having trouble, let us know, and we will have someone hand hold their hand immediately and go to them if they want us to go to the we will definitely do that.
Now, why do you think so few restaurants are applying?
You mentioned the little over 3,000 statistic, but there were 13,144 businesses participating in outdoor dining at the end of the city's temporary restaurants program.
So that we sort of have an abysmal application rate.
Why is that?
So we actually think we've had a good application rate.
At the height of the program during COVID, we had about six to eight thousand restaurants operating.
The 13,000 number is people that may have signed up, they may or may not have ever even used the option.
They may have stayed in business, they may have gone out of business.
We didn't require a restaurant to tell us if they were setting up or not.
So we think the number we're talking about is about six to eight thousand, and we have at this point about four thousand applications.
And just as a um, just to mention that a comparable program to New York is probably Paris, and they have not seen that percentage of people signing up between the temporary and the permanent program.
So we actually think we're doing pretty well.
However, we're not resting on our laurels.
We'd love the dining out program.
We want more people to participate as we get through this first year, and we're gonna have time to really focus on even more outreach.
We will go out to communities, we'll work with any of the council members, boards, whoever, and we will try to solicit more people and get them in the program.
And Michelle, do you want to add anything?
I was just gonna add that we are seeing new applications every day, so the numbers keep going up regularly.
Why is the application only in English and in Spanish?