New York City Council Member Keith Powers is co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Council Member Antonio Reynoso to set permanent guidelines for outdoor dining after Mayor Bill de Blasio extended the lockdown exemption beyond October 31.
"We're a social city and restaurants and bars are often where we get together to see each other," Powers told Cheddar. "Outdoor dining brought our communities alive and gave them a lifeline when they so desperately needed it, and I think it's been a smashing success so far."
The city's outdoor dining program allows restaurants to take over sidewalk, curbside, and parking lot spaces in front of their buildings for extra seating. Many restaurants have used this opportunity to build elaborate dining areas with plastic barriers between tables, coverings that allow them to stay open during inclement weather, and even decor.
This represents a significant expansion of the limited al-fresco dining already allowed at certain restaurants.
"Neighborhood outdoor dining has been great for getting them back to business, but it doesn't pay all the bills," he said. "So they really need the economics of added space."
He added that in the long-term New Yorkers will have to decide whether they like the new setup or not, but right now it's "really necessary" to keep the city's crucial service industry afloat.
De Blasio's announcement last Friday that the program would be permanent comes as the city readies for indoor dining to resume at 25 percent capacity starting September 30.
As for when that capacity will increase, Powers said the city is moving forward cautiously given the possibility of a second surge.
"We have to be really careful opening the indoor at a large rate because of the transmission rates inside," he said. "Right now it's meant to be sort of a hybrid blend."
In the meantime, Powers said he's focused on righting the city's financials, addressing a possible second wave of virus, and dealing with the outsized impact that some communities have suffered during the pandemic.
"I wouldn't make a bet against New York, but what we do now is going to be really important for long-term success," he said. "As New Yorkers we're going to figure out whether we really like it or not, but I think it's right now really necessary."
Elon Musk may not have founded Tesla, but he has become the company, and it’s become him. Now sales are plummeting. Is he toxic for the Tesla?
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
Europeans upset with Elon Musk still aren’t buying his electric cars, adding to a long losing streak for his company.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
