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Q&A
DOT's outreach efforts to previous outdoor dining participants
2:23:34
·
56 sec
Council Member Julie Menin questions DOT officials about their outreach efforts to restaurants that participated in the previous temporary outdoor dining program. The discussion reveals the extent of DOT's communication with potential applicants.
- DOT claims to have visited, emailed, and called each of the 13,104 previous participants multiple times
- Officials explain that inspectors, separate from the core program staff, conducted these visits
- DOT acknowledges that some restaurants are no longer in business
- Menin expresses skepticism about the thoroughness of DOT's outreach efforts
Julie Menin
2:23:34
Thank you.
2:23:34
And and I do wanna ask one further question before I turn over to council member Lewis.
2:23:37
Of the 13,104 restaurants that were just referenced, have you sent a letter to every single one of them to see if they want to apply for the new program?
Margaret Forgione
2:23:47
We've visited each and every one of them several times.
2:23:50
We've sent them each numerous emails, and we've also reached out to them by phone in many cases.
Julie Menin
2:23:55
So a DOT staff member of the eight people that you have working on this has gone to all 13,000 establishments?
Margaret Forgione
2:24:02
No.
2:24:04
We have inspectors that are outside of the 24 that we talked about earlier.
2:24:09
We have 24 staff members in the dining out program.
2:24:12
Then we have a group of inspectors that deal with the restaurants on the street to make sure they're in compliance, etcetera.
2:24:20
Those are the people
Julie Menin
2:24:20
that visit.
2:24:21
And every single one has been visited?
Margaret Forgione
2:24:23
Yes.
2:24:23
In some cases, the restaurants aren't there anymore due to the nature of the industry.
Julie Menin
2:24:27
Okay.
2:24:28
I'll turn it over to Councilmember Lewis for questions.