Photos by Stacie Joy
On Tuesday night, officials from the Department of City Planning and Department of Transportation were on hand at a joint committee meeting of Community Board 3 as part of a public review process to make permanent the Open Restaurants program. (You can find a copy of the presentation at this link.)
EVG contributor Stacie Joy was in attendance. She noted that the meeting started at 6:30 with an agenda item — something to do with the M14A/M14D — that didn't draw much interest from those gathered.
More than an estimated 90 people packed into a room at the Boys Club of New York on 10th Street and Avenue A... while more waited outside... (the meeting was also streaming live)...
And then came the main event, which lasted nearly two hours. (CB3 needed to be out of the room by 9 p.m.)
Here's a quick take from Stacie:
Several media outlets covered the event. Here's a selection (update — added the Curbed entry at 1 p.m.):
It was HIGHLY CONTENTIOUS. It was supposed to be an 85-person cap but the place was packed and there was still a line outside. The DOT presentation drew a lot of negative attention from the crowd, who were frustrated with their inability to speak.
The DOT speech was interrupted constantly with claims of a filibuster and frustration that the community wasn't given time to speak. When they finally were given time, each person was given one-minute. Everyone was yelling and it was a mess.
• Gothamist
"This Isn't Paris!" East Village Community Board Gets Heated Over Outdoor Dining
"This whole program is going to turn our area into an open-air alcohol zone," echoed David Crane, a longtime CB3 member. One resident said he'd been forced to listen to "'Happy Birthday' sung outside my window 20 times a day," as others shouted that "this isn't Paris!"
While local business owners were largely absent from the meeting, they too expressed anger with the DOT's handling of the program. Moshe Schulman, a managing partner of Kindred on 6th Street, said the agency had conducted a "sweep" just prior to the meeting, handing out citations for offenses such as being too close to a tree and blocking a "no parking" sign.
He was given just 24 hours to address the violations, which he described as "ridiculous and inaccurate." "People think we’re done with COVID and everything is all great," Shulman told Gothamist. “We’re just starting to get on our feet and try to normalize service.”• Streetsblog
First Salvos Fired as de Blasio’s ‘Permanent’ Dining Sheds Begin the Community Board Process
There was plenty of talk of compromise and coexistence from the crowd of 90, but many attendees went nuclear, demanding no outdoor dining at all, denouncing struggling restaurants and bars as greedy land-grabbers, and, in one case, waving signs inspired by George Orwell's classic Dystopian novel: "1984: War is Peace. 2021: Residential is commercial."
One opponent was overheard outside the meeting comparing their struggle to that of Martin Luther King Jr. One speaker declared — to a room where more than half the people were still wearing masks — that the pandemic was over, and therefore outdoor dining should be, too.• The Village Sun
East Siders are 'mad as hell' at meeting on Open Restaurants
You can watch the meeting for yourself right here... it begins at the 16-minute mark...
Residents bemoaned the transformation of their community into what might be dubbed "Bourbon Street with yurts."
"I love my neighborhood!" one man started yelling emotionally over and over, also mentioning his "mental health," as others applauded supportively.
One woman, in an apparent reference to the Black Death of the 14th century, a bubonic plague spread by fleas piggybacking on rats, warned that the outdoor huts could breed a repeat. "These sheds are rat traps!" she declared. "We are feeding rats. We just went through a pandemic — we are inviting the next pandemic with these sheds."
• Curbed
A young guy in his 30s named Sam Zimmerman stands up and speaks in support of the program — just the second person to do so thus far. He says the meeting's attendees are not representative of what the neighborhood actually thinks about streeteries, and that most people support the program. "People who are against it are people who come out to these things," he says, and is promptly booed. "There's 165,000 people in this district," he continues. "How many of them are here? People don't want to get screamed at by their neighbors." Everyone mumbles loudly, and someone yells "Where are you from?" and he responds: "From here!"
The Open Restaurants text amendment entered a public review on June 21. This proposal is the first of a series of changes to create the permanent Open Restaurants program launched in June 2020 to help the pandemic-stricken restaurant industry. Per the city:
In addition to the zoning amendment, the City will move administration of the sidewalk café program from the Department of Consumer Affairs and Workforce Protection to DOT, streamline the application process and create rules for a permanent roadway dining program. Altogether, restaurants will have a single agency to go to apply for outdoor dining, with a clear set of design guidelines on what is allowed.
And:
The proposed zoning text amendment would affect every community district within the City. The proposed action would remove the definitions of sidewalk cafes from the Zoning Resolution and any mentions of them in special districts, as well as other clean-up text to fully remove any zoning prohibitions related to the operation of sidewalk cafes.
As part of the public review process, the CB3 Committees will produce a resolution, which the full board will vote on in September. Comments from residents may also be emailed to mn03@cb.nyc.gov. to be considered for the September vote.
60 comments:
I understand restaurants took a big hit during the pandemic and outdoor dining helps their bottom line, but they have to understand it's important to co-exist with their neighbors as well. I'm not opposed to outdoor dining, but the noise level is getting to the point of being obtrusive and the added garbage and rats are taking over the sidewalks. I would suggest outdoor dining be cut off at 10 pm and the DOS be vigilant in policing the areas where outdoor dining occurs.
So much hysteria. My neighbor is a vocal opponent of the sidewalk dining and how it is ruining the neighborhood and specifically our block. I have to remind him that many bars and restaurants had sidewalk cafes pre-pandemic, that our neighborhood already drew the masses for partying and that our block (3rd between 1st and 2nd avenues) doesn't even have any places with outdoor dining. (Facts don't get in his way of a good rant.)
Hopefully everyone can come to terms on a workable arrangement without yelling dumb things about rats and Paris. We need regulations and oversight for places like Yerba Buena and Miss Lily's that are far too crowded but consideration for the places that follow the rules and are trying to survive.
When free parking is abolished in the neighborhood we will not have over saturation of car based crowds trashing our neighborhood.
Re: 7:07 "Facts don't get in the way"
We NEVER had outdoor dining on our block. Now I have to listen to loud drunk obnoxious idiots all night sitting in outdoor sheds. That's a fact.
So your neighborhood has no outdoor dining but your commenting about people who are affected as being hysterical. Therefore you have no concept of the noise level people have to deal with all night.
It's ignorant to denigrate other people's concerns on the impact of their quality of life, when you admit it has no impact on yours.
So it's "hysteria" because it doesn't exist outside your building? Nice.
Such a vocal minority. Thankfully our politicians seem to recognize the thousands of people enjoying outdoor dining significantly out number the people yelling and hissing at this meeting. I'm sympathize with noise and some of the other challenges but would never support this movement because the end goal is out right abolition. Maybe try to find some middle ground folks
You people and your strawman arguments are incredible. 7:07am is clearly making a point about a similarly hysterical neighbor who has an agenda more broad than the issue he is representing.
There are 5 bars and 3 restaurants between 12th and 14th streets on Avenue A. The shouting, singing and chants of chug, chug, chug from the bars and the constant din from diners at the restaurants plus music from all of them has ruined the quality of life for many of us living on Avenue A. Open Restaurants is a good short term solution to help businesses, but will be catastrophic for our health and well being as a permanent program. When you live above, across the street or down the block from the noise it makes life miserable.
Looks like many of the attendees would have had their fun many moons ago (and I'm sure aren't shy about telling you how great it was), but don't want the current generation getting in the way of a comfortable retirement.
Is the do-nothing council member who was so overwhelmingly re-elected in the primary listening to the concerns of the neighborhood residents? According to her Twitter page, it looks like she is busy with other more “important” issues. You get what you vote for.
Re Neighbor "your strawman arguments"
No, YOU are creating "strawman arguments". We have legitimate complaints about new noise levels in areas where they did not exist.
These shacks were supposed to be a temporary financial fix. Now it's impossible to even have air conditioning in a window because of the loud drunks sitting outside. "Vocal minority"? No it's the majority of the residents that are complaining of the out of control noise.
There are almost 500 comments on that Gothamist article, most of them disparaging EV residents. Why is that when one community expresses problems with quality of life issues, they are labeled as "whiny" "NIMBY" "old" or "suburban"? It's especially rich coming from people who don't even live in the area and have no freaking clue.
Yes, the trash problem is worse. Yes, the rat problem is worse. Yes, the noise is worse. Why can't these problems be acknowledged and then rectified? I don't think the majority here are for ending outdoor dining completely, just employing some reasonable guidelines for businesses to follow so we all don't go insane.
Fully in support of outdoor dining. Margins are super thin as it is with rent being where it is.
If we want to bemoan trash... we live in trash city already. Reform the current trash pickup system. Don't scapegoat our restaurants.
We should be able to come to an agreement which allows outdoor dining, limits things like hours outside, reform structures to be safer and mandate that they physically close preventing things like grouping late at night.
There is a simple resolution here that dosen't require giving in to everyone in the neighborhood that hates any sort of change.
I am sure thousands of people enjoy eating outside. But there are also people living all around these restaurants who are being tortured by the noise. Our sidewalks are also impossible now. I have to walk in the street around one of the big sheds when I have groceries. The shed near my apartment takes up so much space that the building it is in front of can’t put their trash in the right place anymore, so they all dump their trash in front of our building, and our landlord is getting all these tickets now. And the rat situation is crazy. I have never seen so many dead rats. We had sidewalk dining before the pandemic, and that was perfectly fine. Restaurants had a few tables outside. There is a big difference between that and the situation we have now. This whole thing is being rushed through without any consideration for the residents. You’ll notice the city is also ignoring the subject of how difficult this is on the wait staff. So many have quit because they can’t take the added workload. They are not only working inside the restaurant, they are running in and out to serve people on the street. There is also all of the set up they have to do every morning and the takedown they have to do every evening. The restaurant workers are being worked until they are sick. They are not getting anything extra.
In all of these posts, articles and stories, I have yet to see a cogent rationalization for continuation of the outdoor dining past the fall of 2021.
Please explain how these sheds will be repaired, replaced, renewed by next year's summer season.
These structures were built as a stop-gap, temporary solution to a very serious problem. The program and its benefits were never meant to be more than that.
There are numerous valid points for not having these structures. What are the counter points to justify this sweeping bill from a business perspective?
Regarding cars parking for free, I'm sure the city has done the math to see how much is collected in revenue from fines for parking violations, especially as the number of free spots is diminishing. The city is going to make up for that financial shortfall somehow.
I am a 30 year resident of CB3, living on East 2nd St the entire time. I was supporter of the open restaurant plan when the survival of these businesses were in questions during the pandemic. While there was always some street noise pre-covid due to nightlife, the amount of street noise my block is currently experiencing is disruptive.
The noise from the outdoor sheds is disruptive to residents living near them. They turn into bars basically after 10Pm and continue to operate that way until 4am. This program seems to have fostered a side effect of encouraging people to party on the streets near but not at one of these sheds. Groups( mostly men) gather on the sidewalks, blasting music and drinking. They spend the evening catcalling any women unlucky enough to walk by. They are not at a restaurant/bar but gathered in front of deli's or on corners near-by. Calling 311 to register a complaint does not get a timely response, if any at all.
I do not want the open streets program to be made permanent and would prefer it to end after this summer. I would rather the space be made in to mini-parks with benches for all to enjoy.
If the Open Street program is approved there must be more rules. My suggestions:
1. All outdoor activity must end by 9pm or 10Pm.
2. No music allowed.
3. There should be a significant monthly fee of over $1000 for use of OUR public space. This should not be a give away to businesses and the funds can be used as relief for residents effected by the noise.
4. The size of the Sheds and the construction needs to be regulated.
5. There must be a team to investigate noise complaints assigned to the East Village. I went 4 years fighting with a night club over loud music after midnight and could never get one investigator to actual show-up.
6. Repeated violations of any ordinance should cause a open restaurant permit being revoked.
7. There should be no more than one "open restaurant" on a block.
8. CB2 & the Liquor Authority need to reinstated the 500 ft rule in the East Village. It seems to be enforced all over the city in residential neighborhoods but ignored in CB3, causing an overabundance of liquor establishments in the L.E.S. & East Village.
The 500 Foot Law prohibits the Authority from issuing an on-premises retail license for the sale and/or consumption of liquor to any premises which is within 500 feet of three establishments that are currently operating with on-premises liquor licenses.
Please keep in mind the city seems to be pursuing 24 hour "bar" neighborhoods in the upcoming years. If the sheds are allowed to operate as bars with no real regulations, the East Village will become a prime candidate. I dread the effect it would have on long-term residential life in the neighborhood I love.
First, I support the needs of these restaurants, and their employees, to stay afloat during a pandemic; I do not oppose the idea of using outdoor space for dining and gathering; and I couldn't give a shit about parking and cars. That said, I never agreed to a full-scale restaurant operating right under my window (with more tables than they ever had inside). The general noise, chatter, and music is so insistent that I can't keep my windows open. The only saving grace right now is my loud-ass AC drowning out some of the noise. There has to be some kind of compromise here.
Get rid of free drunk storage.
Well said
As the person who stood up to complain about the rats and health concerns, as a long time resident who raised her children here and as a community gardener and health care professional, I have never seen this neighborhood so dirty. Part of this is the density and part and the real concern is how garbage is handled generally which must change or we are headed to a health care crisis. Putting out our trash in plastic bags the night before just feeds the rats. Compounding this are the sheds and DOT is not prepared to deal with the issues of the community based on their presentation. They never consulted the community as expressed by some of the CB 3 committee members who also raised concerns. Avenue B is full of sheds, there is daily trash strewn about by rats who have a smorgasbord every night right out on the street, you can see fresh road kill in the morning, the rats live under the restaurant shed platforms and burrow into our community gardens, parks and tree pits. And the supers can’t put out their own trash. There are pools of stagnant water because water is blocked by sand bags that hold the sheds down. It is nasty and yes unhealthful.
9:49am with great, thoughtful suggestions that try to bridge the gap. Completely agree with these suggestions!
As a daily cyclist I can attest to the fact that rat problem is worse than ever before. I have never seen so many dead rats in the street as there are now. They get run over by passing cars, and their flattened carcasses are everywhere now. I try not to run over them but there are so many on the blocks with sidewalk sheds it’s is difficult not to.
Take a walk down St. Marks between 2nd and 3rd and you will see. Then look at all the restaurant garbage that is piled up in the street next to most of the sheds. As cars go by they run over the garbage, making it easy for rats to feed. The obvious solution is to have more frequent garbage pickup, as well as dumpsters instead of garbage bags strewn all over the streets and sidewalks.
On hot days you can smell the garbage rotting while sitting in the restaurant sheds, and the sight of waste and food scraps everywhere is awful. so why the restaurants are not acting more responsibly and cleaning up their own mess is a mystery,
This is truly ridiculous! My dad worked in the restaurant industry and we would have gone hungry during the pandemic. Obviously none of you have ever worked one of these jobs. First, they are vastly underpaid and receive customer abuse ALL the time. Second, I agree that the noise sucks but this is the damn East Village people! It's always been loud. If you want peace and quiet, move to the f*king Upper East Side. I cannot believe how disrespectful people are being of the restaurant industry; this is how people pay rent and feed their families. This NIMBY attitude is disgusting. The true EV people have lived here for DECADES; would you have been able to endure the violence and drug problems of the 80s and 90s? Of course not. Support this incredible community or leave FFS. It's embarrassing.
@loren
The wages paid to the restaurant staff are irrelevant to the situation. That is between the owner and their employees. The endurance of people in previous decades is also irrelevant. No one owes anything to any business or business owner and vice versa. If the restaurant industry wants life to be tough on their employees that hardly falls on the patrons.
If you want outdoor dining everywhere then YOU should move to a neighborhood that can support it.
What was wrong with the city before that these shacks have to be pressed on everyone?
Move if you don't like it - always a personal favorite. And speaking of comments on Gothamist - those folks make the commentators here look like choir singers.
Loren, I have lived here for over 35 years and I can tell you the neighborhood has never been as loud as it is now. Maybe you are younger than me and were a kid in the 80s and 90s so you don't know. These jackasses who own these restaurants don't give a crap about the people who live here or the wait staff and kitchen workers who are all quitting now. You even say yourself they pay next to nothing to their workers. You think they are giving all their employees bonuses for working like mad to service these sheds? These outdoor sheds are bad for everyone. Do some reading up on unions and join those of us lobbing for restaurant workers to get the money and protections they deserve. You are attacking the wrong people.
Yeah, lots of hysteria. A couple simple rules and more enforcement would go a long way to making the extended outdoor dining more palatable. Many locations already had some outdoors, and they were pretty decent about making sure outdoors closed by 10 or 11 so people could sleep. Venues need to also make sure there’s more control of noise when they’re open, and definitely no music. Having the expanding dining can be more pleasurable for everyone.
The people who lived here already endured the problems of the 80s and 90s. We don’t want to deal w them again, and give this a rest already! people who work and live here need SLEEP and clean streets, not 24 hour n partying. We also work and feed families, you are not the only working people. Other Essential workers also need sleep, sanitation and peace. You cannot only take into account those who need to go out for 24hours while parents pay the bills. Of course the community supports restaurant workers! It’s foolish to think they are alone though-Try to see the rest of your community as well, we have been affected by the past year and the pandemic and many of us are operating with shredded nerves from the BS “summer of your lives” that many other types of essential workers helped keep them alive for.
If you like these low rent sidewalk shed restaurants, you’re gonna love the new rooftop restaurant, lobby and hallway program. Who needs to cook anymore when there’s a restaurant table right outside your apartment door!
I have lived in the EV my whole life, and for all those who comment move, you are clearly not from NY. My neighborhood has become a shit show with all the outdoor covid shacks. Vomit and trash everywhere, water can't even drain properly when it rains. Not a lot of people are talking about how these shacks bottle neck side walk space, on 1st ave btw 7th and 8th street there is one part of the block where people only have maybe 1.5 feet to pass through! If your in a wheel chair or elderly, you're fucked to get by. The neighborhood has always been a spot for people to come and eat/drink/whatever, but it has gotten out of control with zero regulation and accountability. In addition the side walk space being taken from pedestrians, every morning after a night of listening to drunk girls sing and scream, and fights, I leave my building to broken glass and our buildings trash and recycling cans being tossed all over by all these young privileged drunks. It's time for this covid shacks to go!
I don't get it. Before COVID sidewalk seating was very heavily regulated. Now that COVID is being managed for the most part and indoor dining is allowed again, why is the city seeking to hold on to this emergency measure and make it permanent? I agreed with letting restaurants do this during the crisis but there is absolutely no "need" to continue this. It is allowing for major expansion of these restaurants essentially for free. If I owned a restaurant and had the opportunity to greatly increase my seating capacity without paying to enlarge the space already leased, I would do it in a second. It's free money for them. If they are going to do this they might as well let everyone set up sidewalk retail kiosks wherever they please as well.
The sidewalk on 1st Avenue was too narrow way before the pandemic and needed to be widened. Not just between 7 and St Marks: the west side of the Avenue from Houston to 14th Street.
I can't walk my dog down 12th to A anymore because every morning the guys at the restaurant are spraying bleach on the sidewalk. Today I saw a guy with a dog ahead of me who didn't know and his dog stepped on it. The guy scooped him up right away. They shouldn't be spreading that crap all over the sidewalk but they do it because they are dropping bits of food all over it running out to service the two sheds they have going. The water pools in the tree bed on 12th and the sidewalk is sinking and cracking. They're going to destroy one of the few trees we have on the block with all that bleach.
What Billsville said. It is also not helpful that the mayor decided to reduce street cleaning to once a week to make it easier for car owners to store their cars for free.
Would love car owners to pay “ There should be a significant monthly fee of over $1000 for use of OUR public space” in order for them to store their cars.
I filed a compliment about the Lebanese restaurant on first ave and 12th , when the basement hatch is up there is about one foot to pass. It was inspected and given 24 hours to rectify. Of course, it never happened because the city has instructed that restaurants not to be fined. So absolutely a waste of time for anyone to complain!
Once the zoning laws are changed the neighborhood is royalty fucked. De Blasio and his majesty Cuomo found a silver lining in the worst pandemic in the past 100 years. Hand over public space (sidewalks or pedestrian thoroughfares, to private concerns. Everyone knows that only cheap tourists go to Times Sq but asshole foodie tourists like to spend big on expensive cocktails made from highly taxed alcohol which is a gold mine for NY State. The need fo save these restaurants has passed and their near death is the excuse to steal our quality of life for decades to come.
If you do not live near one of these all night outdoor restaurant / bars you can not imagine how horrific it is. If you cannot empathize with those suffering nightly, the wear and tear on their mental health then you are a really big asshole.
@12:34pm: Loren, I *AM* a "true EV person" who's lived here for nearly 50 years; as such, I have seen this neighborhood through everything that's happened here for almost half a century. And since I own my apartment, I will NOT be "moving to the upper east side", thanks. This is *my* turf, my *home* and I'll not let restaurant owners who have commercial leases drive me out.
What I see now is MY TAX DOLLARS paying for the space restaurants get for free. As a short-term, pandemic-relief, LIMITED TIME deal, I had no problem with that. But to attempt to make this chaos permanent: NO WAY IN HELL!
Maybe all the restaurant owners would like to chip in for the cost (new, expensive cost!) to my building for rat control. Rats had not been an issue on my block for about 10-15 years, but since this spring, we have them everywhere. So this freebie for restaurant owners is definitely costing me & the building where I live some very real cold hard cash for vermin control. Same is true of all the residential buildings on my block - and we do NOT have any restaurants in any of these buildings, so we KNOW the rats are just spreading out & getting comfy in many nearby residential buildings. And if we don't pay for vermin control, guess what: WE get fined by NYC for having rats! But they're NOT our rats, they are rats that are spreading out due to the outdoor dining sheds.
If you expect me to have sympathy for restaurant owners, I used to, but now with this attempted greedy grab, I don't any more. THEY are the ones who need to be good neighbors to those of us who actually *live* here 24/7/365. WE are the ones dealing with their garbage, their rats, and their noise. Most of the restaurant owners live elsewhere, so their night's sleep is not disturbed by what's going on out there.
" Choresh Wald said...
When free parking is abolished in the neighborhood we will not have over saturation of car based crowds trashing our neighborhood."
Ever hear of UBER or yellow taxis? This open streets stunt just doubled the amount of bars and restaurants, visitors and noise the way cell spit in half and multiple. We have to stop this from being permanent.
I see someone else posted about that metal basement sidewalk gate always being open at that restaurant on 12th and A and there being very little space to get by. It makes me crazy because someone is going to get hurt. I am not surprised the DOT has done nothing about it. The DOT has also done nothing about the illegal curbside seating they have next to their huge shed on the 12th Street side of the restaurant. They are one of the rare places on a corner that has two sheds. It is insane that this busy corner has been handed over to one business.
I like the the outdoor seating and closing streets to cars. Hope outdoor dining stays forever makes neighborhood so much more enjoyable.
July 15, 2021 at 9:49 AM:
What you'll get are the homeless and addicted and insane floating around in your miniparks. And you're assuming the City maintains the spaces.
The program needs to end as originally stated in Oct. Otherwise, DiBlasio and the City Council flat out lied to steal the public common for their wall street rentiers - you know, those banks and REITS and and trusts that actually own the buildings and to whom the landlords service the debt loads.
Along with East River Park, we need to hear what Eric Adams position is now, after his trip to DC.
I'm a little surprised this meeting was so packed; I went Monday evening to the meeting at the Municipal Building, and I had no problem getting in—even got a seat.
It was a much smaller meeting, and the tone was that all the administrators there were treating outdoor dining as a done deal that simply had to be regulated; I was disappointed by that. (I guess you know which team I'm on.)
Oh man, the histrionics.. If you want peace and quiet, the east village is the LAST place you should be paying your rent dollars. When you're tired of it, there are much quieter places uptown, in NJ, etc and you'll get a LOT more space for your dollar. Complaining about drinking and noise in the EV, of ALL the places you could pick to live in the ENTIRE region - is like going to a steakhouse and ranting there are no vegan options (or vice versa..). This is young people central guys (duh) , let's be realistic or at least be reasonable in middle-ground solutions. I've lived in the hood for ~20 years and am well into my 40s..my friends/cohort wonders wtf I still live in a "20s neighborhood" for. When I'm tired of the buzz, it's simple - I will move, not complain and whine against small business owners that employ low wage /immigrant workers, and are fighting to survive against Seamless and boring chains.
The garbage is De Blasio's fault honestly. He cut sanitation budget by 25% at the same time allowing open streets.
Sorry, saying the EV is a 'hood just for 20-somethings and it's supposed to be noisy is a weak argument. There are plenty of older people here, still a bunch of artists and it would be stupid for us to move to a quieter area because, duh, we're rent-stabilized. There needs to be a balance and also diversity. It can't just be a bunch of rich, bland, inconsiderate, boorish and uncultured kids screaming in each other's faces like they're eating their avocado toast on a roller coaster. The sheds need to go. The EV is a rat-infested (worse than ever) loose-garbage-strewn pigsty now and the main reason is because of those sheds. Also, one of the protestors brings up a very good point that the sheds impede firefighters trying to do their job.
I don't understand why "young" is always argued to be synonymous with "inconsiderate drunk". I'm 32, have lived in the Lower East Side and East Village my whole life. When I was in my 20s and spent nights in bars like Pianos and Off the Wagon I certainly had fun and drank a bit too much but I never screamed in the streets, I never littered, I never pissed or vomited on the sidewalk... I don't know why anyone would think that just because this is a "young" neighborhood we need to do everything we can to make it as loud, dirty, dangerous, uncomfortable, and booze soaked as possible. There are plenty of elderly, working people in this neighborhood, who have lived here their whole lives for decades upon decades and saying that they need to move away so that the EV can become a 24/7, 365 party is just ridiculous. No one is denying anyone their access to bars and restaurants and fun nights out. All people are asking is that the sidewalks be given back to pedestrians, that the trash and rats be taken care of, and that residents be allowed to sleep at night. Yes, the EV was already loud and rowdy. Why is it OK to make it even worse just to benefit these restaurant owners (not the workers at these establishments) and completely disregard everyone else?
Do you ever stop talking about cars? It’s insane. I always see your name here about parking. Vehicles are a necessarily tool of modern life. They need somewhere to go when the human exits. Not everyone can afford insane garage prices (they are limited here).
Not to mention, the cars don’t OWN their spot. It is public, meaning anyone can park there.
Huh? What about every other business? Nobody is attacking the restaurant industry that’s a crazy response. Most people I’m sure supported the temporary measure. This is all regarding a long term use of the public street/sidewalk. Chill. We love restaurants and the hard working people.
@1:47am: No, you won't ever move. You're already a superannuated "kid" who's still here for the EV vibe & energy. Some day you will be a senior citizen, still living right here, and you'll be complaining about whatever's going on then. Unless you believe you'll never get old!
As for your claim that this area is "young people's central" - well, DUH on *you*! Most of the people currently living around here are not young. Many are raising children, many are retired. All want and deserve a decent quality of life. We were here first, and the newbies who want a "young person's central" need to go elsewhere.
If NYC needs a designated-get-drunk-and-make-noise area - which it should not, unless everyone is now a barbarian - I nominate one or more of the West Side piers. That's far away from normal people who are trying to just get some sleep at night.
Glenn @9:50
"It can't just be a bunch of rich, bland, inconsiderate, boorish and uncultured kids screaming in each other's faces like they're eating their avocado toast on a roller coaster."
lol, you captured the new East Villager perfectly!
Let's get back to the pre-covid and pre-DeBlasio days ASAP.
Get rid of the sidewalk sheds (with all the problems associated with them) and FREE UP MORE PARKING FOR EVERYONE.
Whoever champions this cause, will win the next mayorship.
I've lived in the EV/LES for close to 25 years and I have to say that it feels like the city truly does not care at all about our neighborhoods. *Everything* is a fight--getting adequate bus service, getting help after Sandy (I never saw one government official), improving our schools, maintaining our parks, cleaning our streets, regulating bars, and so on. I truly dread the inevitable sh*tshow when the city begins its destruction of East River Park. Based on how it's treated every other issue in the LES/EV--with neglect and contempt--the ESCR is bound to fall heavily on our shoulders and take decades (if ever) to re-open.
They don’t own the space it’s true but you’d never know that. How common it is in NY to see the whole block in their car on street sweep days ready to quickly go around the block and park their otherwise lifeless car there again for another week. Just saying. No easy solutions to these issues but when you take away the free and easy storage of vehicles people tend to reconsider their need to own it.
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