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by crazielollie
on Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:07 am |
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City giving smokers fresh air
Hundreds of blocks opened up for restaurants' outdoor cafes
BY DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Smoker at La Belle Vie in Chelsea yesterday. New rules will allow many more restaurants to open sidewalk cafes.
The city is quietly opening scores of Manhattan blocks to small outdoor cafes - offering an airy new crack in the city's strict smoking ban.
The new zoning rules allow a single row of chairs outside restaurants in previously excluded areas - with a quarter of new seats allowed to go to smokers.
That's in line with current regulations governing outdoor dining areas under Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban.
But by opening up the bustling heart of midtown Manhattan and other areas to alfresco seating for the first time in decades, the number of eateries able to accommodate smokers is expected to rise dramatically.
"It's up to the restaurateur," said city Planning Department chief Amanda Burden. "He or she can allow 25%."
The new, cafe-friendly zone includes a 100-block section of midtown and much of Madison and parts of Park and Lexington Aves. north of 59th St. - areas where outdoor seats have been banned since 1979.
Other blocks to be opened include 23rd St. from the East River to Eighth Ave. and 14th St. between Second and Eighth Aves.; First Ave. between 48th and 54th Sts., and Orchard and Delancey Sts. on the lower East Side.
Josephine Farinella, 72, said she can't wait. "I'll be in each one of 'em," she vowed, as she sat outside a Seventh Ave. restaurant yesterday, a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other.
Still off limits will be a wide swath around Grand Central and Times Square, where pedestrian traffic was deemed too heavy to absorb sidewalk clutter.
Some 15 restaurants already have applied for permits under rules quietly approved in May by the City Council. The first permit likely will be issued by the end of this month, with scores more to follow.
The move comes as the city's Department of Consumer Affairs has dramatically streamlined the permitting process - cutting the time it takes to get a cafe permit from 15 months to less than two.
City officials emphasized the new zoning rules were aimed not at smoking but at livening up the city's restaurant scene.
"They are fun for the people who sit at them, and they are fun for the people who walk by," said Burden. "You just get a sense that New York is a great place to be."
Kelli Crosby, 42, agreed that outdoor dining adds to the city's character, even if it chews up some sidewalk space.
"I like the energy of the sidewalk cafes," she said. "In Europe, they're on every corner."
Restaurateurs said the new seats will add style to their decor and money to their bottom lines. But many also see a rare chance to offer smoking patrons a seat.
"It certainly beats their customers having to stand outside," said Chuck Hunt, executive director of the New York State Restaurant Association, which represents some 2,500 city eateries.
Some who have applied for permits say they are looking forward to the new tables - but also worry about the competition that may arise for coveted smoking spots.
"A lot of our customers are from South America and are used to smoking, so they'll probably all be fighting for one table," said Aymeric Clement, manager at Le Bilboquet on E. 63rd St. "But it will bring a little more charm to the upper East Side."
The rules will be strict: Tables must take up no more than 4-1/2 feet of sidewalk, and restaurants will not be allowed to erect barriers or umbrellas around tables.
"We wanted to make the process easier," Department of Consumer Affairs commissioner Gretchen Dykstra said of the new rules. "And we wanted to strengthen enforcement."
With Adam Lisberg
Originally published on July 19, 2004
Evidently Restaurant owners are fighting. If the smokers who want to see their rights reinstated INSIDE as well as out would join the fight and nag the hell out of official via letters and e-mail, there just could be a chance.
They may talk about "European flavor" etc. but in fact, it means someone is putting on a little heat. Crazie
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crazielollie
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by Tom
on Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:28 am |
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| That's a little much to regulate smoking outside. I wouldn't call that a crack in the smoking ban at all. It's a joke. Imagaie going to a city in NJ, or PA, and saying that "you can only smoke outside my restaurant in this row of chairs." It's just silly. They'd laugh. It still amazes me that a ban like this was able to stick in NY City. All police and organized crime units must be on their side. |
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Tom
Smokers Rights Activist
Joined: Aug 24, 2003
Posts: 961
Location: The Kingdom of New Jersey
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by crazielollie
on Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:00 am |
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| Not so silly. It says the restaurant owners are willing to do what they can. If the smokers in NYC would start e-mailing the powers that be on a consistent basis, it would certainly help. Maybe it would get a change so restaurant owners could provide service indoors and do away with the whole ban. The old letter writing campaigns were very effective (much more so than petitions). E-mail campaigns are even easier and less time consuming. Complaining here or to fellow smokers freezing outside in January doesn't accomplish a thing. Smokers directing their complaints and feelings towards the powers that be can. |
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crazielollie
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by Judith
on Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:35 pm |
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| Is there a list of restaurants in NYC or Westchester allowing outdoor smoking? |
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Judith
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by crazielollie
on Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:38 pm |
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Judith,
I'm reading this as something "about to happen", not something that is occuring at present. Crazie |
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crazielollie
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