Outdoor dining structures are coming down across New York City — including outside Mood Ring on Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick, where Streetsblog's Engagement Editor Emily Lipstein visited Tuesday afternoon as the bar's owners prepared to dismantle the shed they installed in the parking spot outside their business four years ago.
Like businesses across the five boroughs, the bar opted to retreat from the curbside due to the high cost of permitting and dismantling the set-up every winter under the city's new regulations, which went into effect on Aug. 3, co-owner Bowen Goh told Lipstein.
"I can understand it from a sanitation point of view, I can understand it from the city government trying to make more money. Maybe there's an aspect where, you know, they're also trying to clear up a bit more parking," Goh said. "But for us, I think on purpose they kind of make it a bit difficult. One is the pricing and, two the application is quite arduous. ... It's a very difficult application. Maybe it's by design that they do it like that so that they can make money off of it, but also reduce the amount of structures out here.
"It's a tough decision for us," added Goh, who said the bar hasn't decided whether or not to keep its sidewalk seating — which also needs city approval — and could reconsider and bring back the street seating next year.
"It's just some we have to adjust to, and we'll play it by ear," he said. "If we find that it is really useful to have it, we'll try to bring it back next year and if not, then it is what it is."
Around 2,600 bars and restaurants applied in the first round of applications for the permanent outdoor seating program — down from around 6,000 to 8,000 that had sidewalk or roadway seating this summer, according to city figures. Of the permanent program participants, 1,911 applied to set-up in the street.
In other news:
- A group of Manhattan neighbors want to turn a vacant lot beneath the Queensboro Bridge into a park. They're hosting a community meeting there today at 6:30 p.m. (FOX 5 via YouTube)
- Council Member Justin Brannan (D-Bay Ridge) joins Mark Levine and Jennifer Rajkumar in race for comptroller. (NY Post)
- Speaking of Levine, he talked illegal license plate covers on NY1.
- Donations to Mayor Adams from a trash hauler that won a commercial collection license from his administration are under investigation by the city Campaign Finance Board. (Gothamist)
- A 30-year-old pedestrian suffered "critical injuries" at the hands of a hit-and-run driver in Hells Kitchen. (Patch)
- The Daily News Editorial Board panned the Gateway Tunnel project as a $50 billion waste that won't improve capacity at Penn Station.
- A 13-year-old newly-arrived immigrant from Mexico died in a motorcycle crash in the Bronx. (Daily News)
- Octogenerian North Jersey Rep. Bill Pascarell has been in and out of the hospital for a month. (New Jersey Globe)
