Harlem Board Votes Down Permanent Outdoor Dining Program

HARLEM, NY — A Central Harlem community board voted unanimously last week to disapprove the city's plan to make permanent the outdoor dining program that has reshaped New York City's streets during the pandemic.

Tuesday's public hearing by Community Board 10 was one of dozens being held by boards across the five boroughs to examine the city's proposal to amend its zoning code, allowing Open Restaurants to exist in perpetuity under the auspices of the Department of Transportation.

The program, which cut months' worth of red tape to allow eateries to quickly add seating on streets and sidewalks, has proved wildly popular among customers and restaurateurs alike. Harlem has been no exception: the number of sidewalk cafés in Community District 10 more than tripled from 25 before the pandemic to 89 now, a city official said.

Of those, 14 would have been illegal pre-pandemic due to zoning restrictions or because they are in residential areas. (The only Central Harlem streets that allowed sidewalk cafés before the pandemic were Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. boulevards.)

But Harlem board members who spoke Tuesday evening were largely critical of the program's side effects, especially the rat infestations and garbage pileups that have accompanied some of the outdoor setups, according to residents.

"What is happening in terms of sanitation in Community Board 10 and what is happening in other communities around the city is completely different," board member Terri Wisdom said.

Aside from sanitation, board members voiced concerns about the loss of parking spaces — which some suggested would affect blue-collar workers disproportionately — as well as what they called a lack of community input into the permanent program.

"This text amendment in an emergency situation is premature," board chair Cicely Harris said. "These should be the suggestions that are taken and played out in the community before a permanent amendment is done."

Representatives from the Department of City Planning sought to rebut some of the objections. Dining sheds under the new program will be subject to health inspections, unlike pre-pandemic cafés, which could help mitigate the rat issues, one official noted. The permanent program will also have rules requiring ADA compliance and adequate sidewalk space.

Still, the board voted unanimously to recommend that the city disapprove the permanent program. The board will also send the city a list of recommendations focused on sanitation, parking, accessibility and community input.

Community Board 10 is not the first to react skeptically to the city's Open Restaurants proposal. Furious neighbors packed Lower Manhattan board meetings earlier this summer, holding signs reading "Outdoor Dining Destroys Our Peace" and lamenting the noise and vermin that followed the sheds.

Supporters of the program have suggested that those meeting attendees are simply a "vocal minority." Indeed, Open Restaurants have gotten a warmer reception elsewhere, like on the Upper East Side, where a community board voted to support the permanent program earlier this month.

Ultimately, community boards have no power to stop the program, though their recommendations can be influential. Once each board has weighed in, the "Permanent Open Restaurant program" will head to the borough presidents, and later to the City Council, to be ratified. The current emergency program would last until 2023, when the new, permanent program would take effect.

Have a Harlem news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.