Council Member Ossé Questions Panel on Rats, Sanitation, and DOT Responsiveness

Um and I think we're experiencing some of the real effects of that through the testimony that you're sharing, right?

Um, by creating this perception that they were trying to create a process for it, um, but it actually harming the entirety of the entire of the whole thing.

Um, I think a question that I I want to pose to you because I think most of my questions are for the administration when they do testify.

It's unfortunate that the commissioner won't be here today.

Um, is the main talking point that we hear in terms of why uh outdoor dining um was bad was because of rats and sanitation.

Um I just want to yield some time to some of the business owners here.

Uh, that I believe are I believe that you guys being here alone shows that you're upstanding business owners and are doing a good job and care about your communities and care about your business.

Um, what do you respond to that in terms of you know the sanitation um issue that that people try to pose to to belittle this program?

I mean, I don't think the program could either has that effect.

I mean it's New York City.

I feel that's another topic, but I feel like the city can do a whole lot more to assist us in those issues.

But um, you know, you have we're restaurant owners, so we have to comply and keep a sanitary space, whether it's inside or outside.

Yeah, and I just say I think it's another another area where where the challenges of roadway are being conflated with sidewalk.

Because side sidewalk is you know, without a structure with just tables and chairs, there's I don't see an issue there where we've built structures in the side.

Now we've all learned that you need to be careful, and the new regulations require you to raise the floor and clean underneath because you're providing a place for hard bridge.

So that was never an issue with the old sidewalk program.

It is a concern that needs to be addressed in the in the roadway program, but I think there are certainly steps that uh that the program has covered to make that less of an issue.

I had I had both iterations, so obviously I had the sandbags and took my two to our stick shift to pick up a lot of sandbags.

It was a fun day for me.

Um I believe that the rules put forth now pretty much negate that.

I mean, all of my sidewalk or my panels in my street seating come up, sweep under.

Um so I think it's kind of a like a mute point at like that's just like a low-hanging fruit to say that this program won't work.

We've fixed the problems that we learned from the emergency program, and that's not really an issue.

Um, we work in food.

So we have the Department of Health coming in.

We are tasked with not making people sick, with keeping them safe, with not over serving.

So I think rats and outdoor dining is just the easiest target when we're literally tasked with keeping people safe every day.

And how responsive has DCWP or DOT been when uh maybe some of the complications you had during this new rendition of the program been.

Have they been responsive in answering your questions?

Has it been um clear responses that you've been receiving?

Uh, what has the engagement been there?

So I can tell you that I used a lawyer, so my lawyer has done the bulk of that, which I'm very grateful for because there has been a lot of back and forth, and I feel like a lot of the questions that were posed, I would have had to reach out to someone else to figure out how to answer them.

My very best friend owns a bar in Queens, and she tackled this program on her own, and I can tell you that she has called me a few times a week to ask me to ask questions, to reach out to Andrew, to talk to Jeff Garcia to try to figure out the responses because she has talked to DOT and the answers weren't as clear.

But this is also specifically relating to the conditional approval as it relates to altering your liquor license.

There's been a lot of confusion around that.

And I know that you're dealing with the state agency and a city agency, but I can tell you that a lot of people I have talked to is are very confused about the alteration and that in general.

And I don't know if it's because DOT is waiting for a response from the SLA to respond to the questions, but there hasn't been a lot of answers in regard to that.

I'll just I'll just add to that on DOT's responsiveness.

I mean, we we found that DOT staff is responsive to individual applicant questions.

Um we don't always like the answers we get.

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, sometimes it's confusing, but but but emails do go answered, which is uh something we do appreciate.

Yeah.

And to reiterate on the the rats and the cleanliness issue, as as as Robert said, uh the overwhelming majority of applications of sidewalk cafes always has been and still are.

Um that's never been an issue for sidewalk cafes.

It's tables and chairs on the sidewalk.

I I think the new rules we address the few neighborhood complaints that there were concerning roadway.

Understand that nobody, including us, expected some of those structures to be up for as many years as they were.

So they weren't built, you know, necessarily, you know, to last.

So that's resolved now.

They're all gone.

The new flooring requirement will take care of that.

Uh the new closing hours take care of that.

Noise, no TVs or or music or speakers allowed outdoors.

So I think the legitimate concerns during the emergency for roadway have been resolved.

And um and now we just need to to make the process more appealing so that more businesses will apply for it.

Thank you.

Um, thank you to the panel for your testimony.

It was definitely informative.

Next uh in the panel, you can thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next, we'll have um a statement from Councilmember Salamanca regarding his um bill being heard today.