Restaurant owners share cost concerns over outdoor dining regulations and fees
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City restaurant owners are speaking out over the new outdoor dining program.
Less than 3,000 restaurants applied for the city's new program when the deadline passed on August 3rd.
That number is drastically less than the 13,000 businesses that participated during the open restaurants program at the height of the pandemic.
Many owners are saying the fees and new regulations coupled with the cost of having to build and take down the structures each winter is too much.
City officials said many restaurants have phased out their outdoor dining structures after people began to feel more comfortable eating indoors.
"I believe it's just about the money," a restaurant owner told Eyewitness News. "It's sad that we have to shut this down because it is an extension of our business."
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams has said the new guidelines address complaints that the sheds had become magnets for rats and garbage.
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