{"id":43153,"date":"2020-08-08T19:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nyc-will-die-if-we-dont-allow-indoor-dining-in-midtown-asap\/"},"modified":"2020-08-08T19:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T16:18:00","slug":"nyc-will-die-if-we-dont-allow-indoor-dining-in-midtown-asap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nyc-will-die-if-we-dont-allow-indoor-dining-in-midtown-asap\/","title":{"rendered":"#NYC will die if we don\u2019t allow indoor dining in Midtown ASAP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#NYC will die if we don\u2019t allow indoor dining in Midtown ASAP<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-wrapper\" role=\"main\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>        August 8, 2020 <span>|<\/span> 12:18pm               <span>|<\/span> Updated <span>August 8, 2020 | 12:22pm<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"featured-image-wrapper\">\n                        Enlarge Image<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Restaurants \u2014 to eat, to mingle, to do business \u2014 are the lifeblood of Midtown, Steve Cuozzo argues. If they aren\u2019t reopened, workers won\u2019t return.\" id=\"standard-article-image\"  src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/empty-midtown-restaurants.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=618&#038;h=410&#038;crop=1\" ><\/img><br \/>\n                <span>Restaurants &#8212; to eat, to mingle, to do business &#8212; are the lifeblood of Midtown, Steve Cuozzo argues. If they aren&#8217;t reopened, workers won&#8217;t return. <\/span><br \/>\n                            <span>Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n                        It\u2019s the restaurants, stupid.<\/p>\n<p>Midtown without places to eat is a hollow shell of itself. They\u2019re the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a>izing glue without which no central business district can function.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first thing anyone asks anyone who goes back to an office is, \u2018Where do you go for lunch?\u2019 \u201d observed Mary Ann Tighe, the tristate CEO of CBRE, the biggest commercial real-estate leasing and management firm in the US, who knows the Manhattan office scene as well as anyone alive. Right now, the answer is nowhere.<\/p>\n<p>The clock\u2019s ticking. Unlike in residential areas, which are teeming with alfresco dining options, Midtown has few restaurants with outdoor service. Once the air chills and the days grow short, they\u2019ll be gone in a flash, and with them, any hope for saving Manhattan\u2019s heart and soul.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio seem hell-bent on destroying what remains of the restaurant business, never mind the damage to the city as a whole. It\u2019s the only part of the state yet to allow indoor dining, even though all of the Big <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le\u2019s vital COVID stats \u2014 new infections, hospitalizations and deaths \u2014 are as low or even lower than anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Often overlooked is that, with the exception of a few big companies that shut their facilities down until Jan. 1, <em>employees have been allowed back to work in their offices if they want<\/em> since the June 22 start of Phase Two reopening. But they\u2019re not coming. Occupancy in Midtown is barely 10 percent, even though tenants are obliged to pay 100 percent of the rent.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16103856\"><img alt=\"The urgency to open Midtown restaurants have fallen on deaf ears with Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo.\" data- data- height=\"441\" width=\"662\"><\/img><figcaption><span>Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo seem hell-bent on destroying what remains of the restaurant business, never mind the damage to the city as a whole.<\/span><span>Richard Harbus; Matthew McDermott<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Occupancy will tick upward only to 20 percent after Labor Day and perhaps 40 percent after Jan. 1, real- estate insiders say. But with no restaurants, they won\u2019t come back even in meagre numbers.<\/p>\n<p>I know of no poll that asks employees how important restaurants are in deciding whether to return to their offices. But they matter at least as much as subways. I\u2019ve worked in central Midtown for 25 years and I\u2019ve written about restaurants for 20 years. I also know the office market, the prime mover of the city\u2019s and state\u2019s economy. And, as much as I miss the camaraderie of my office at 1211 Sixth Avenue, I won\u2019t go back as long as Midtown remains a restaurant graveyard.<\/p>\n<p>My friends working from home in Brooklyn and in the suburbs say the same thing. They need a Midtown (and a Midtown South and FiDi) with some of the spirit they remember. Stores aren\u2019t enough. They need places to eat \u2014 and to socialize, to do business off-campus and to people-watch even with masks on.<\/p>\n<p>Bankers, brokers, art directors, media moguls and digital wizards have little reason to give up their Zoom sessions for a Midtown that\u2019s bereft of actual human interaction \u2014 which occurs mainly in restaurants, from holes in the wall to Michelin-starred temples of <em>haute cuisine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRestaurants\u201d doesn\u2019t just mean destination places like La Grenouille, 21, The Grill and Le Bernardin, or moderately priced Serafina, Docks Oyster Bar and scores of casual Japanese sushi joints. It means any place with tables, chairs and food. It means diners like Red Flame on West 44th Street and Parkside Diner at West 55th Street. It means Chick fil-A, Bare Burger and every cheap spot serving tacos, pasta, chicken tikka and Cuban sandwiches. Even dressed-down millennials need their Chipotle fix.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16103904\"><img alt=\"Long lines out the door are regular occurrences now with dining restrictions.\" data- data- height=\"441\" width=\"662\"><\/img><figcaption><span>High-end restaurants and fast food joints were once equally huge draws in Midtown, but with only a few places currently offering outdoor service, employees would rather work from home.<\/span><span>Angel Chevrestt<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sure, there\u2019s a real danger of spreading the coronavirus at bars where densely packed drinkers breathe into each other\u2019s faces. But bars and restaurants aren\u2019t the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Besides rules for lower density, mask-wearing and other viral-blocking steps, there\u2019s an obvious way to more effectively minimize risk: No more bars inside restaurants. Some owners won\u2019t like losing the easy money that flows from $20 cocktails, but nobody said the \u201cnew normal\u201d would be easy.<\/p>\n<p>Most owners came to terms with the new requirements months ago and launched good-faith efforts to live up to them \u2014 only to have Cuomo postpone indoor service that was supposed to be part of the Phase Three reopening on July 7.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, reopened restaurants can and should be heavily regulated. For sure, some won\u2019t be able to cope with the rules and will ultimately close.<\/p>\n<p>But losing some restaurants is better than losing all of them \u2014 and much better than losing all of Midtown, the place that symbolizes New York City, as well.\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Opinion <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>if you want to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">watch Movies<\/a> or Tv Shows go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/dizi.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/08\/08\/indoor-dining-must-reopen-in-midtown-to-save-the-spirit-of-nyc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#NYC will die if we don\u2019t allow indoor dining in Midtown ASAP&#8221; August 8, 2020 | 12:18pm | Updated August 8, 2020 | 12:22pm Enlarge Image Restaurants &#8212; to eat, to mingle, to do business &#8212; are the lifeblood of Midtown, Steve Cuozzo argues. If they aren&#8217;t reopened, workers won&#8217;t return. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock It\u2019s the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50769],"class_list":["post-43153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-nyc-will-die-if-we-dont-allow-indoor-dining-in-midtown-asap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43153","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=43153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}