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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Leslie Clark, Representative of West Village Residents Association
3:02:35
·
132 sec
Leslie Clark, representing the West Village Residents Association, presents testimony opposing certain suggestions made by the restaurant industry and some council members regarding the outdoor dining program. She emphasizes the importance of pedestrian space on public sidewalks and criticizes the current enforcement system.
- Argues for maintaining or increasing pedestrian clearances on sidewalks, referencing the previous program's requirements
- Criticizes the complaint-driven enforcement system of DOT, praising the previous proactive enforcement by the Department of Consumer Affairs
- Highlights the impact of zoning changes on residential areas, increasing the number of outdoor dining locations from 193 to 524 miles
Leslie Clark
3:02:35
Leslie I am Leslie Clark also with West Village Residence.
3:02:39
I wanted to talk about some of the suggestions that have been made by the by the industry that I disagree with and that has been made by some council members that disagree with.
3:02:47
One is about the clearances.
3:02:48
First, I'd like to make it very clear that instead of using the word clearances, let's talk about the space allotted to pedestrians on a public sidewalk.
3:02:57
That's what these clearances are about.
3:02:59
Restaurants consider these onerous.
3:03:03
This is not what is onerous is that under the old and by the way I agree with you council member amendment, an excellently run program by the consumer affairs department.
3:03:15
We had a three foot pedestrian clearance.
3:03:19
We had we had a three foot service aisle in front of every sidewalk cafe in addition to an eight foot pedestrian clearance.
3:03:29
Clearance.
3:03:30
And by the way, we also had excellent enforcement by consumer affairs because unlike the complaint driven system that DOT has, consumer affairs actually sent out inspectors to look for themselves and as a result, what we had was a uniform compliance and uniform enforcement.
3:03:52
Every restaurant knew it had to follow the rules because the next door neighbor followed the rules and why did they follow the rules?
3:03:59
Because consumer affairs took it upon themselves to make sure they were following the rules.
3:04:06
We haven't had that in five years.
3:04:08
And I'd also like to talk about the word onerous that's used all the time here.
3:04:14
Because of the zoning text amendment, the number of miles of sidewalk added sidewalk and roadway added by to outdoor dining went from 193 to 524.
3:04:30
Because of that, we had residential zones that suddenly became open territory for restaurants.
3:04:38
I used to have nobody dining under my window.
3:04:41
I now have 108.
3:04:44
That is onerous.
3:04:46
Thank you.