Reopen News: Mayor Bill de Blasio says Open Restaurants Program saved 80,000 jobs in NYC

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 9,000 restaurants are taking part in the city's Open Restaurants Program that allows them to offer outdoor dining.

The city estimates it has saved some 80,000 jobs with the program.

Mayor de Blasio announced on Monday that the program would return on June 1, 2021 to further help restaurants in New York City, and perhaps sooner should conditions allow.

The Open Restaurant Program allows restaurants to promote open space, enhance social distancing during the pandemic, and earn money and keep people employed.

RELATED: Outdoor restaurants get creative

The city offers two options for temporary expanded outdoor dining:

- Open Restaurants - Individual food establishments may apply and self-certify to use the sidewalk or curb lane adjacent to their business.

- Open Streets: Restaurants - Community based organizations, BIDs or groups of three (3) or more restaurants on a single block may join together to apply online for weekend-only outdoor dining on streets closed to traffic. More information and locations can be found on the Open Streets: Restaurants program page.

The program started during Phase 2. The city says its approach prioritizes geographic equity and allows us to reach the areas most impacted by COVID-19.

RELATED: Gov. Cuomo discusses decision to delay indoor dining in NYC

Raw Video: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo discusses the decision to postpone indoor dining as part of NYC's Phase 3 reopening.

WATCH EYEWITNESS TO A PANDEMIC (Episode 4)

It overwhelmed the health care industry, it put millions out of work, it drowned social services in an ocean of need and threatened the food supply Americans had long since taken for granted. At the apex of the crisis and for the weeks that followed, no part of life, or even what followed life, was spared.

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