Curbside Dining
Our curbside dining is in danger and we’re on a mission to save it!
The Open Restaurants program revealed a simple truth: our curb lane is valuable, dynamic public space that can support local businesses and create thousands of new opportunities for New Yorkers to socialize and dine outside. At the program’s peak, more than 12,500 restaurants and bars took advantage of the new chance to use their curb lane. The program seemed like a no-brainer—the kind of thing we should have been doing all along.
But in 2023, City Council restricted the program to April through November, returning those beloved curbside cafes to car parking for a third of the year. This rule, in addition to a new fee structure and bureaucratic hoops, has effectively destroyed the program. Businesses do not have the time, money, or space to store their cafes in the winter months. In other cases, Community Boards have stepped outside their authority, putting up roadblocks and restrictions meant to weaken the program in their districts. As a result, participation has shrunk by 90%.
New Yorkers are hungry for curbside dining! We plan to fix Dining Out NYC so that:
Businesses can use their curbs year-round
The fee structure is simple and not prohibitive for local businesses
Design guidelines are flexible, helpful, and fun
Local input is a part of the process without delaying it or blocking it
The application is clear, simple, and does not overburden business owners or DOT
Encourages the program to grow and thrive, especially in underserved neighborhoods
Outdoor dining is equitable, lucrative, and social. It’s good for our communities and our climate.
Did you know?
Curbside dining made a huge impact on the City despite only reclaiming less than 1% of curb space.
At its peak, outdoor dining saved 100,000 jobs, created $373 million in total annual wages and $9.6 million in annual income tax to the City (Comptroller’s report, February 2025).
These cafes serve far more people than parking—the average car sits idle at the curb 94% of the time.
Curbside dining doubled the outdoor dining options in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color; nearly a third of curbside cafes served neighborhoods with a median household income of $60,000 or less (NYU, January 2023).
Curbside dining is an important step toward people-centered streets and can help inspire further change to the ways we use our curbs for diverse purposes.
Curbside dining was once heralded as part of a larger, pioneering vision to reimagine New York City’s streets to serve everyone. But City Council has purposely created barriers and bureaucracy to weaken a program that would reclaim space from cars and create a more vibrant, livable city.
