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'The West Village Has Become Lawless': Locals Sue To Keep Open Restaurants From Becoming Permanent
By
James Ramsay
Published Oct 20, 2021
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By
James Ramsay
Published Oct 20, 2021
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A group of 22 New York City residents filed a lawsuit this week attempting to block the Open Restaurants program — which has helped businesses throughout the pandemic — from becoming permanent, citing a list of quality-of-life nightmares and accusing the Department of Transportation (DOT) of botching its review of the pandemic-born outdoor dining system.
"Notwithstanding its direct knowledge of the ongoing negative impact the temporary Open Restaurants program was having on neighborhoods and their residents, the DOT issued its negative declaration," the suit says, referring to a June 18th, 2021 decision by the DOT indicating that Open Restaurants did not have a negative environmental effect, and could thus continue operating.
The plaintiffs in the suit — several of whom live in the West Village or the Lower East Side, with others in Hell’s Kitchen, Gramercy, and Williamsburg — are asking a judge to overturn the DOT’s negative declaration. (Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in September of 2020 that outdoor dining would become permanent and year-round.)
Much of the 108-page document, which was filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court, is a word cloud of common complaints: crowds; smoking; garbage; homeless people; lack of parking; rats. Outdoor dining structures are repeatedly referred to as "shanties." And in one affidavit, a West 4th Street resident alleged that a local bar’s maitre'd, standing behind a velvet rope, stopped her and asked if she had a reservation as she tried to continue past on the sidewalk.
"The West Village has become lawless and sometimes downright dangerous," said the affidavit from Robin Felsher, who lives on Greenwich Avenue. She cited the narrower pedestrian walkways as a major hazard.
Then, there are the stories about noise.
Ellen Koenigsberg, who lives on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side with her 13-year-old daughter, said she can’t sleep because of the activity outside, so she "employs her air conditioner even if it's freezing to try to drown out the noise."
Mary Ann Pizza Dennis, who purchased her apartment on Bedford Street in 2005, explained that "her husband watches TV very loud to try to drown out the crowd [outside], and in turn, [she] watches TV in her bedroom and tries to drown out what her husband watches."
The affidavit from Peter Waldman, who also lives on Bedford Street in the West Village, described the noise beneath his window as "a steady maddening presence that goes on for hours into the night, causing him to feel like a prisoner in his own home and bringing on anxiety, depression, and pure fury."
The lawsuit also states that earlier this year, "DOT received thousands of complaints from residents related to noise, vermin, garbage accumulation, [and] crowded sidewalks impeding residents’ access."
In response to outrage over parking spots being repurposed for outdoor dining sheds, Mayor de Blasio has stated that the Open Restaurants program — which helped around 5,700 businesses stay alive through the worst of the pandemic — was responsible for saving 100,000 jobs. But the city has also acknowledged that there's room for improvement in how outdoor dining structures are arranged and regulated.
Earlier this month, the Department of City Planning and the DOT said they were launching a public engagement process with in-person and remote roundtable meetings scheduled over the next six months. The city then plans to release new design guidelines for outdoor dining set-ups by the spring of 2022.
These roundtable sessions are still scheduled to take place despite the lawsuit.
Tagged
noise complaints
west village
outdoor dining
James Ramsay
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