Outdoor dining is officially here to stay.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams signed Intro 31 into law, permanently cementing the popular pandemic-era program that once allowed dining sheds year-round and let restaurants use street space without a fee. But with the program now law, there will be a few crucial changes.
“My number one ask of all of you who are here: Go on and eat somewhere, spend some money,” Adams said at a press conference outside the Havana Cafe, a restaurant in the Bronx, after signing the bill. “Find you an outdoor dining spot. I know there’s a good plant-based meal here.”
Under the new measure, the city’s transportation department will oversee a program that permits roadway cafes from April to November — the warmest months of the year — and sidewalk seating year-round. Restaurant owners will have to apply for the appropriate permits, which will be issued every four years.
During the height of the pandemic, the Bill de Blasio administration greenlit outdoor dining across the city to boost restaurants’ profits after public health mandates forced them to close their doors. Since the program launched, the number of outdoor dining spots has exploded across all five boroughs, rising from 1,000 locations to 12,000, according to a report released earlier this year. This includes parts of the city that predominantly serve residents of color, where the spaces were not as common.
As the number of coronavirus cases diminished, city officials vowed to ensure that outdoor dining would stay. Before landing on the mayor’s lap, the City Council approved the bill two days after a New York state judge said the mayor could no longer continue repeatedly passing executive orders to keep the program in place.
But the new requirements could end up shrinking outdoor dining in the city for restaurant owners that can’t afford the permits or the process of removing the sheds for a period of time each year. Restaurant owners can pay up to $25 per square foot…
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