Council Member Rivera Questions DOT on Marketplace Costs and Compliant Setups

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Um, thank you for being here.

I want to thank everyone who testified.

Really appreciate your work and um all the small businesses that are here.

Um this is the first year of outdoor dining.

I appreciate that you're evaluating the timeline for review and especially considering our own capacity and also the capacity of the community board.

They're they're very worried about handling the applications and ensuring there's this balance, as you all know, with this with our own local ecosystems.

So let me ask about the online marketplace.

Um, they provide elements for fabrication.

Some of them are very, very expensive, um, as you might have heard, requiring tens of thousands of dollars in deposits.

Does DOT have any information they can share about usage and feedback you've received on what's available?

Yes, we have heard anecdotally, council member, that businesses have found the marketplace to be very useful.

We don't require them to tell us if they've used it or not, because things are so busy we don't want to put anything else onto them.

So I can't really tell you exactly how many have partaken in the different aspects of the marketplace.

But my understanding is that we have, you know, a variety of um levels of materials, you know, from high-end to more everyday materials.

So in the marketplace, there should be enough for them to choose from to be able to fit their budget.

Right.

Well, you can imagine they want to make an investment, they want something to last.

Um, so when we're looking at I've I've seen price tags 35,000, 86,000 for pieces.