{"id":257128,"date":"2021-05-24T01:41:52","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T22:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nyc-gave-up-8550-parking-spots-for-outdoor-dining-amid-covid\/"},"modified":"2021-05-24T01:41:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T22:41:52","slug":"nyc-gave-up-8550-parking-spots-for-outdoor-dining-amid-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nyc-gave-up-8550-parking-spots-for-outdoor-dining-amid-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"#NYC gave up 8,550 parking spots for outdoor dining amid COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#NYC gave up 8,550 parking spots for outdoor dining amid COVID<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

They have an app<\/a>etite for obstruction! <\/p>\n

Restaurants have gobbled up around 8,550 publicly-owned curbside parking spots for their outdoor seating set-ups since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to city data. <\/p>\n

Since last June, the mayor and Department of Transportation have let eateries build the dining areas in the now-former spots outside their storefronts, as indoor eating was restricted amid the pandemic. <\/p>\n

Around 11,500 restaurants joined the program, of which about 5,700 have chosen to set up shop along the curb. That adds up to \u201croughly\u201d 8,550 spots transformed \u2014 out of around 3 million total parking spots across the five boroughs, City Hall spokesman Mitch Schwartz said.<\/p>\n

For the operators of TRU Astoria cafe on Ditmars Boulevard, the extra space was well worth the trade-off \u2014 as business has \u201cmore than doubled\u201d since installing dining tables along the sidewalk and curb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank god we adjusted. The extended patio. The outdoor seating. Being able to use the street. It strengthened our brand,\u201d said Yanni Stathakis, 48, operations director for Astoria Hospitality Group, which owns the eatery. <\/p>\n

\"The
The outdoor dining seating for the restaurant Tru Astoria\u2019s in Astoria, Queens.<\/figcaption>
BRIGITTE STELZER<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPeople in all five boroughs are now coming to Astoria to eat here at Ditmars. It was good the city did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just across the road, Sal Barretta of Alba\u2019s Pizza said the program has taken a bite out of his business. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy customers are telling me they aren\u2019t coming here because they can\u2019t find parking,\u201d said Barretta, who opted not to set up dining tables in the roadbed because he figured there was plenty of space inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheds, I did not do it. Maybe I should have,\u201d Baretta said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t need to be on the street. We have 101 seats inside. These sheds, really dangerous. It\u2019s a huge liability. It\u2019s dirty. It\u2019s dangerous. You\u2019re breathing in all the exhaust from the cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baretta said the restaurant next door to his closed months ago \u2014 but its outdoor dining set-up continues to clog up potential parking spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place next door, six months out of business. Still these three parking spots are closed because he left these out in the street,\u201d Baretta said. \u201cIt makes no sense, but with this mayor \u2014 there\u2019s no enforcement, no oversight. I don\u2019t know what they hell he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A car parked next to an outdoor dining enclosure.<\/figcaption>
Christopher Sadowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stathakis said Astoria Hospitality Group has spent tens of thousands of dollars on outdoor dining facilities at its various restaurants \u2014 and those who didn\u2019t make the investment lost out. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t adapt. They didn\u2019t add delivery and they didn\u2019t add any outdoor dining,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are sitting ducks. They don\u2019t know what to do. It\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some locals support the trade-off. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe restaurants need to survive! I think it was the best solution,\u201d remarked Steve P., 52, a lifelong Astoria resident who works for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have to compromise. We\u2019ve got the greatest subway system. We should use it! It\u2019s cheaper than the gas or the ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

And one resident said the lack of parking was already a problem before the makeshift patios arrived anyway. <\/p>\n

\u201cParking here has always been a clusterf\u2013k!\u201d said Astoria resident and bartender Joey Izzo, 34. A few spots lost to outdoor dining \u201chasn\u2019t changed\u201d anything, he added.<\/p>\n

\"People
People eating outdoors in the East Village in Manhattan on May 1, 2021.<\/figcaption>
James Keivom<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But others say it just made a bad problem worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the sheds it was already hard to park, but now? On Friday? Forget it!\u201d software engineer Ricardo Lourenco, 42, said of the situation on Astoria\u2019s popular Broadway strip<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even drive through there anymore,\u201d Lourenco said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nightmare!\u201d<\/p>\n

City Hall argued the program has allowed countless restaurants to remain open despite New Yorkers\u2019 aversion to indoor spaces amid COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the toughest year for small businesses in recent memory, the Open Restaurants program saved an estimated 100,000 jobs,\u201d Schwartz said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt claimed less than half of one percent of the city\u2019s parking spots. Bargains like that are hard to find in this town.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#NYC gave up 8,550 parking spots for outdoor dining amid COVID” They have an appetite for obstruction! Restaurants have gobbled up around 8,550 publicly-owned curbside parking spots for their outdoor seating set-ups since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to city data. Since last June, the mayor and Department of Transportation have let eateries…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/121020outdoordining70CS.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[106908,5042,70344,71328,14177,22512],"class_list":["post-257128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-23-21","tag-bill-de-blasio","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-parking","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}