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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Michelle Kuppersmith Member of Manhattan Community Board 3
3:39:22
·
130 sec
Michelle Kuppersmith, a Lower East Side resident and Manhattan Community Board 3 member, testifies in support of outdoor dining but criticizes the complexity and confusion surrounding the new permanent process. She advocates for simplifying the program and making roadway dining available year-round.
- Highlights the need to streamline the application process and reduce confusion between different outdoor dining programs
- Argues that the current administrative design seems intended to hinder the program's success
- Calls for the City Council to modify the program to be more straightforward for applicants and expand outdoor dining options
Michelle Kuppersmith
3:39:22
Hi.
3:39:22
My name is, actually Michelle Cooper Smith.
3:39:24
You're giving me PTSD from, school.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
3:39:27
I'm sorry.
Michelle Kuppersmith
3:39:28
That's okay.
3:39:30
Okay.
3:39:30
So my name is Michelle Cooper Smith.
3:39:32
I'm a Lower East Side resident, a community board member of which I was the liquor license chair for many years and a bit of a downtown gadfly.
3:39:39
So I just say this to make it clear that I am very well versed in what's happening with the permanent outdoor dining program, but I'm here to testify on my own behalf, not on my community board's behalf.
3:39:50
I'm a raving fan of outdoor dining.
3:39:52
I still remember the July 4 weekend in 2020 when the emergency program started and how freeing it was to finally have a a safe space to socialize with people after months of sadness and darkness.
3:40:03
And it gave me a vision of the future where we could have fewer private vehicles using our private curbs.
3:40:10
But I have to say that the new permanent process is far too onerous and frankly confusing.
3:40:15
I can't tell you how many business owners I've talked to in my neighborhood who like, reasonably can't tell the difference between open streets and roadway roadway dining and sidewalk cafes and why are there different, you know, months months that each operate in and whose approval for whom.
3:40:32
And so I think that this should really be simplified.
3:40:34
As others have said before, that robot dining should be all year long just like sidewalk cafes, like, let's just make it much easier to understand.
3:40:42
And also, I'll echo what was said earlier about how difficult the process is for once they recognize the difference between the programs, difficult the process actually is.
3:40:52
CB notice.
3:40:53
CB hearings where they get unnecessarily beat to death on hours and operations.
3:40:58
DOT, SLA, it's just all too much.
3:41:00
I agree with Councilmember Osei that the admins seem to have designed the program to effectively kill it.
3:41:05
So it needs to be fixed by the council to be more straightforward for applicants and provide more outdoor dining for New York City residents.
3:41:12
And, I think that the council should remove the provision that allows sidewalk cafes to be called up for a full council vote because, as we all know, because of the zoning text amendment, all of these sidewalk cafes are now as of right so long as they the DOT's
UNKNOWN
3:41:25
regulation Thank you.
3:41:25
Your time has expired.
Michelle Kuppersmith
3:41:26
And I thank, chairman and for abstaining on the vote to deny Ladiv's Sidewalk Cafe.
3:41:30
Have a great day.
3:41:31
Thank you.