22 Neighborhood Leaders Slam DOT Survey and Outreach on Permanent Open Restaurants Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Contact: Avery cueup.nyc@gmail.com

AN OPEN LETTER TO NYC DOT COMMISSIONER HENRY GUTMAN, CONCERNING HIS AGENCY’S FAILED PUBLIC OUTREACH EFFORTS ON THE PROPOSED PERMANENT OPEN RESTAURANTS PROGRAM

NEW YORK, NY (December 21, 2021)

Dear Mr. Gutman,

The majority of New York City community boards — 29 of 46 that filed a recommendation — considered and disapproved the DOT proposal that will lead to the permanent takeover of sidewalks and roadways for the expanded use of restaurants. In spite of that resounding community response, your agency is now engaged in a far-reaching PR campaign that attempts  to cloak your controversial outdoor dining program in the guise of universal “popularity.” It won’t work. Your program is not popular. And your “public outreach” plan is a sham. 

All aspects of the DOT’s supposed “public outreach” campaign – the “survey,” the five borough board meetings, and the virtual roundtables – are deeply flawed. Indeed, none of the components of the “public outreach” program even come close to accurately gathering the views and experiences of the citizens, voters, and residents of New York City.

The “survey” is the worst of the three:

1. This “survey” can be filled in multiple times by anyone who wishes to do so. Your agency could have easily created a survey with a “single-response” limit. Instead, you chose to have no limit to responses. In fact, when completing your “survey” there is an automated link to “return to the form” so that individuals are encouraged to complete the form again and again. This promotes ballot-box stuffing.

2. Not only could this “survey” be filled in multiple times by one individual, but it could also be filled in by individuals anywhere in the country, and indeed, anywhere in the world. Even a simple computer script – a bot – could fill out this “survey” to secure the answers supporting the financial interests of industry stakeholders that have shaped this program since its inception.

3. Since this “survey” (and the proposed roundtables) are entirely digital, the DOT’s process excludes New Yorkers without internet access from conversations about the future of their streets and sidewalks. We find serious fault with this form of survey taking and public outreach because it limits who can participate based on technology access.

4. Residents' input has been minimized by the structure of data collection. This “survey” has two tracks or branches: one for restaurant owners and workers – the other for those who “dine at open restaurants” and those who “live, work or frequent a neighborhood with open restaurant (sic).” This structure minimizes residents’ input by reducing them to one-third of just one out of five categories – hardly a fair way of measuring the impact of this program on those who endure its noise, vermin, and lost public sidewalks.

Any “survey” that is so heavily weighted in favor of one industry – and not its workers and not its neighboring businesses and not the residents – is not designed to create, as the city’s administrative procedures require, “a level playing field between the agency and the public.” Therefore, this survey should not be used to make public policy that may effectively privatize our common public landscape forever. This survey should be stopped, and its flawed, distorted results erased.

The borough board notifications on the DOT website are also an insult to the notion of “public outreach.” None of the four borough boards listed [Staten Island is simply unscheduled] have links that the public can use for more information. And the information provided by the DOT on your agency’s web page is simply inaccurate.

1. The Queens Borough Board was listed as in-person on the Borough President’s website. In fact, it was by Zoom only and by invitation only.

2. The Brooklyn Borough Board was listed as occurring at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7. In fact, it took place at noon that day.

3. The Manhattan Borough Board was listed as occurring on Friday, December 17 at 9:30 – while the actual DOT briefing took place where no reasonable person would think to look for it: the Manhattan Borough President Vaccine Task Force meeting on Tuesday, December 7 at 3:00 p.m.

4. The Bronx Borough Board “outreach” was not a public meeting. Even the link to view the meeting on YouTube was not made public in advance of the meeting.

This is not informing the public. It is hiding from the public.

The Virtual Public Roundtables again sideline the city’s residents. While the DOT is engaged in private, closed-door meetings with “stakeholders” in the restaurant industry, your agency is offering only two Virtual Public Roundtables for the eight million citizens of New York City.

Surely the people who live and work in New York City deserve to have a greater voice in any far-reaching transformation of their public space.

We call on the New York City Department of Transportation to immediately

• address the grave concerns raised by the twenty-nine Community Boards that voted against this dangerous initiative

• scrap the sham “survey” that the DOT is conducting

• engage in immediate and rigorous enforcement of all existing rules governing the Temporary Open Restaurants program

• commission a robust and independent study of the environmental impacts of the proposed Permanent Open Restaurants program

We look forward to your timely response to our concerns.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Artnzen, President, Central Village Block Association

Diem Boyd, Founder, LES Dwellers

michele campo, President, Bowery Block Association

Leslie Clark, West Village Residents Association

Tamara Daley, Orchard Street Block Association

Lynn Ellsworth, Humanscale NYC

Chris Giordano, President, 64-67 Streets Block Association

Michael Kenna, President, 67 West 87th Street HDFC

Jan Lee, The Chinatown Core Block Association

Micki McGee, South Village Neighbors

David Mulkins, President, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors

Katherine O'Sullivan & Maggie Clarke, Inwood Preservation

Shannon Phipps, Berry St. Alliance

Nancy Preston, Moving Forward Unidos

Sandy Reiburn, President, Preserve Our Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Susi Schropp, 8 Saint Marks Place Tenants Association

Steve Starosta, President, Kimon Retzos, Secretary/Treasurer, W. 15th St. Block Association

Elizabeth Sabo, West 10th Street Residents Association

Sean Sweeney, Director, SoHo Alliance

Stuart Waldman, Bedford Downing Block Association

Judith Zaborowski, 9th Street A-1 Block Association*

Stuart Zamsky, East Fifth Street Block Association

* for identification purposes only

cc:

Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and Mayor-Elect

Adrienne E. Adams, NYC Councilmember, District 28

Erik Bottcher, NYC Councilmember-Elect, District 3

Brad Lander, NYC Councilmember, District 39

Mark Levine, NYC Councilmember, District 7

Christopher Marte, Councilmember-Elect, District 1

Francisco Moya, NYC Councilmember, District 21

Carlina Rivera, NYC Councilmember, District 2

Ydanis Rodríguez, NYC Councilmember, Council District 10

Rafael Salamanca, NYC Councilmember, Council District 17

Deborah Glick, NYS Assemblymember, Assembly District 66

Harvey Epstein, NYS Assemblymember, Assembly District 74

Brad Hoylman, NYS Senator, Senate District 27

Brian Kavanagh, NYS Senator, Senate District 26

Tammy Melzer, Chair, Manhattan CB-1

Jeannine Kiely, Chair, Manhattan CB-2

Alysha Lewis Coleman, Chair, Manhattan CB-3

Lowell Kern, Chair, Manhattan CB-4

Steven Brown, Manhattan CB-7

Cicely Harris, Manhattan CB-10

Nilsa Orama, Manhattan CB-11

Eleazar Bueno, Manhattan CB-12

Dealice Fuller, Chair, Brooklyn CB-1

Robert Camacho, Chair, Brooklyn CB-4

Lori Willis, Chair, Brooklyn CB-10

William Guarinello, Chair, Brooklyn CB-11

Yidel Perlstein, Chair, Brooklyn CB-12

Barry Spitzer, District Manager, Brooklyn CB-12

Lucy Acevedo, Chair, Brooklyn CB-13

Jo Ann Brown, Chair, Brooklyn CB-14

Theresa Scavo, Chair, Brooklyn CB-15

Saul Needle, Chair, Brooklyn CB-18

Betty Bryant-Brown, Chair, Bronx CB-1

Evonne Capers, Chair, Bronx CB-6

Laura Spalter, Chair, Bronx CB-8

Joseph Russo, Chair, Bronx CB-10

Marie Torniali, Chair, Queens CB-1

Lisa Deller, Chair, Queens CB-2

Gene Kelty, Chair, Queens CB-4

Elizabeth Braton, Chair, Queens CB-10

Michael Budabin, Chair, Queens CB-11

Nicholas Siclari, Chair, Staten Island CB-1

Robert Collegio, Chair, Staten Island CB-2

Frank Morano, Chair, Staten Island CB-3

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