New York City restaurants will now be able to better serve customers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that the city’s Open Rest Restaurants Rents program, created in June, will be made “permanent and year-round” as a temporary measure to protect restaurants from coronavirus restrictions.
“I really want us to take this model and make it a part of New York City life for years and generations,” De Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehre on Friday. “I think this has been an extraordinarily positive experiment and it’s working.”
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According to the Open Rest.Rent website, the program allows rest restaurants to sit on the steps outside or at the border of their businesses to cut down on din.
It coordinates with New York City’s already existing Open Streets program, allowing restaurateurs rent customers to sit on a closed road for traffic.
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According to the mayor’s office fees, there are 85 New York City streets that are closed to cars on certain days from restaurants to seat dinners.
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Overall, the Open Rest Restaurants Rents program has registered 10,300 businesses since the beginning of this summer and saved about 90,000 jobs, according to a press release.
“Open restaurants was a big, bold experiment in supporting the vital industry and renovating our public space,” de Blasio said in a statement. “And it worked. As we embark on a long-term recovery, we are proud to expand and expand these efforts to keep New York City the most vibrant city in the world. The time for a new tradition has come. ”
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According to the release, restaurant restaurateurs will be able to use heaters in their outdoor spaces and in “partial tent closures”. However, if they are completely closed, they will have to comply with the 25% capacity rule for indoor dining, which goes up to 30 Sept.
“The main thing here is that we want to make rest restaurants rent better,” de Blasio told Lehr on Friday.
“We want to see them flourish in the future and I think this will help a lot.” He then added.
