The economy of the Throggs Neck Bid area is heavily dependent on the many restaurants that grace our community. The people from across the region that they draw to our abundant selection of excellent dining options represents a key portion of local business.
That reality is why the reluctance to allow New York City’s restaurants to follow the same rules of surrounding areas in Westchester and Long Island that allow indoor dining is so devastating.
The warmer weather is rapidly drawing to a close, and the minor relief afforded by outdoor seating will no longer provide the slim life line to some small degree of financial survival that it has.
The financial impact of this, following the months of the COVID shutdown, is crippling. The danger that this could cause many, if not most, restaurants across the city to permanently close down is very real, indeed, even probable. The New York Post recently noted that “More than 1,000 of the city’s 25,000 sit-down eateries have closed since the start of the pandemic — and a prolonged shutdown without a blueprint to reopen threatens to sink many more by winter’s end.”
It is an illusion to assume that restaurants can be shut down for a long period of time and come back to be the job-creation engine that they have been. It’s not only the present economy that is at stake. A New York State Department of Labor report found that “The growth rate for jobs in the dining industry is higher than the growth rate for all industries in New York City.” Keeping these vital businesses closed and jeopardizing their survival could be a mortal blow to both the overall city economy, and the vast number of jobs they create.
Our local community would be among the most detrimentally affected in the entire city if the Mayor does not change course.
Luke Fortney, writing in the trade publication NY Eater, notes that there are “…no concrete plans to bring back indoor dining this year…dining and other indoor activities could be on-hold until at least 2021.”
The reaction by the dining industry is one of shock and dismay. Attorneys Lou Gelormino and Mark Fonte are instituting together a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 100 restaurants in Staten Island and southern Brooklyn against this decision.
The decision to discriminate against dining establishments when schools, museums and even gyms are being allowed to reopen is baffling, particularly when the NYC COVID infection rate has dropped below 1%.
The importance of restaurants to the city economy, and to the lives of the massive number of people they employ must be understood. This action, added to the stringent crackdown by the State Liquor authority on drinking establishments throughout the city, resulting in fines and shutdowns, has severely impacted one of our community’s vital economic building blocks
We at the Throggs Neck BID do not seek to get involved in squabbles with any elected official, or the policies they pursue. However, when an action is taken that could literally devastate our entire neighborhood, we are forced to act. We will do all that is necessary to protect our community.