Restler: Thanks Speaker Menon, staff, and advocates for supporting the bill

Speaker Menon has been a huge champion of this legislation since before she was speaker.

Back last summer, she was conspiring with me about how we could try to pass and move this legislation.

I want to thank her and Jonathan from her team in particular for really being steadfast in their support for this bill.

The ledge division did a brilliant job in navigating this.

I really want to thank Rachel Cordero and Sarah Swain, who I think just flew back from Egypt just for this.

I'm just kidding, but we're really grateful for their help.

My chief of staff is brilliant.

Molly is the brains behind everything we do, and I really appreciate her hard work on this.

And there were many, many folks who supported this, open plans, transportation alternatives, the hospitality alliance, and most of all, all the small businesses around New York City who told their stories and explained how the seasonal program just quite simply did not work and we needed to fix it.

You know, we need to be more clear-eyed in government.

Of recognizing when policies fail and fixing them.

That is exactly what we're doing today, and I'm really proud that we're restoring outdoor dining to its previous glory.

Thank you, Chair Bray.

We really appreciate your strong support here.

Congratulations, Councilmember.

I will now pass it on to Councilmember.

Or Thomas Henry to provide an opening statement on her bill.