Open Restaurants Program News Today

Effective March 3, 2024, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) adopted new rules for the City's permanent outdoor dining program, Dining Out NYC. Spanning...

The highs and lows of New York City have never felt more extreme. On the one hand, office occupancy continues to remain stagnant around 50% of its pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, the streets feel more crowded than Rio during Mardi Gras. And it is not just tourists wearing Santa hats and gawking at the Rockefeller tree along Fifth Ave. — the diversity and energy of the crowd suggests a newfound appreciation of street-life for New Yorkers.

New York City's Open Restaurants Program, while here to stay, is going to see substantial changes, requiring new permits, as soon as next year.

The makeshift structures will be allowed to remain in place until July, according to Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program director Julie Schipper, who said a more thorough application process would be enacted that would do away with “these full houses … in the...

The New York City Council held a hearing on Feb. 8 on whether to make outdoor sidewalk dining, ...

As the city’s financially devastated restaurants and bars struggle to recoup two years’ of losses caused by the pandemic, forced shutdowns, occupancy restrictions, office towers empty of workers, next to no tourism, and inadequate government relief, a survey conducted by the NYC Hospitality Alliance found that 9 in 10 restaurants say outdoor...

The head of the Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program told a City Council committee that the makeshift structures won’t be allowed to remain after the pandemic eases. #citycouncil

Plus, Chelsea Hotel restaurant El Quijote reopens — and more intel

As part of our ongoing Grading de Blasio series, WNYC/Gothamist asked a panel of local health experts to look at how the mayor managed the calamity and what he leaves behind as New York City preps for future surges.

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