On October 18, 2021, twenty-two residents of the West Village, the East Village, the South Village, the Lower East the Flatiron District, Hell’s Kitchen and Greenpoint and Ft. Greene in Brooklyn filed a law suit to compel the City of New York to conduct an Environmental Impact Study on Open Restaurants. And on March 23, 2022, a Supreme Court judge ruled in our favor. “For a taxpayer supported agency to declare, in effect, the Open Restaurants Program and Outdoor Seating have no negative impact on our streets and communities because that Agency has unilaterally made that determination, serves only as a thinly-veiled attempt to avoid statutory scrutiny of the program by a baseless declaration of its own omnipotence. Any assertion otherwise warrants no further discussion.” read the law suit here
What the City told restaurants and didn’t tell you.
The number of licensed bars and restaurant in 10014 more than doubled between 2000 and 2019. We expect the small drop in 2020 to bounce back as new license applications have been on the rise since Jan 2021.
Council District 3 (which includes the West Village) has far more restaurants and bars participating in the Open Restaurants program than anywhere in NYC. Click here to learn how Open Restaurants are killing traditional retail.
Our response to permanent on-street dining.
Oct 14, 2020
