Peter Davies Testimony: Broadway Residents Coalition

I'm uh testifying on behalf of Broadway Residence Coalition in Soho.

Um I testified earlier this morning at the competing public hearing regard to a change of rules.

Um, but here, um, first of all, I would like to applaud Community Board 2 and the effort that they have done uh through their outdoor dining working group to catalog and document uh the way that uh various sidewalk cafes and street roadway setups are being uh applied for to come into community board two tonight.

Uh as Valerie De La Rosa mentioned, there will be another three dozen uh applications being heard, one of which is for a current operation with four seats, four, one, two, three, four, applying for sidewalk and roadway for an additional sixty seats outdoors, six zero.

This is an operation without a bathroom uh because it didn't require one with only four seats, but now with 60 seats, what does that mean in terms of sharing public space?

Uh one thing that the advocates, the paid lobbyists and lawyers for the restaurant industry didn't mention were residents.

There is an inherent conflict in the uh much broader allowance for outdoor dining.

I'm not against outdoor dining, but do not acknowledge the conflicts uh to act as if there have been no changes.

Thank you.

Your time has expired.

Okay, good luck.

Got a lot of work to do, folks.

Pincus Ringel, are you there?

I never asked to testify, so I'm not sure.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sandy Rayburn.

Are you on?