Curbside Dining

We won!

Year-round outdoor dining is back, and we couldn’t have done it without you. After years of tireless advocacy, we’re thrilled that the City Council recognized the simple truth: our curb lane is valuable, dynamic, available public space that can support local businesses, create jobs, and unlock thousands of new opportunities for New Yorkers to socialize and dine outside.

Over the past several years, Open Plans led the effort to protect and expand outdoor dining as a permanent part of New York City’s public realm. We worked to build a strong coalition of support among restaurants, advocates, and elected officials while making the case that outdoor dining is an essential benefit that would improve New Yorkers' quality of life. 

Thanks to your support, we were able to reverse the flawed seasonal program, which required beloved curbside cafes to return to car parking for a third of the year. Combined with the high costs and burdens of setting up, taking down, and storing an outdoor dining setup each year, the seasonal rules effectively killed the program, especially in working-class communities. 

Now, our local businesses can reclaim curbside spaces and satisfy New Yorkers’ hunger for outdoor dining. The new rules mean that New Yorkers can eat at the curb year-round and the program can truly grow and thrive, especially in underserved neighborhoods.

We’re huge fans of outdoor dining, and we know that this is a major win for New Yorkers in all five boroughs. Why? Because it’s equitable, social, and creates new jobs and opportunities for local businesses. 

• Curbside dining made a huge impact on the City despite using less than 1% of curb space.

• At its peak, outdoor dining saved 100,000 jobs, created $373 million in total annual wages and $9.6 million in annual income tax to the City (Comptroller’s report, February 2025).

• These cafes serve far more people than a parked car; the average car sits unused at the curb 94% of the time.

• Curbside dining is an important step toward people-centered streets and can help inspire further change to the ways we use our curbs for diverse purposes.

Curbside dining can be part of a larger vision to reimagine New York City streets, expand public access and spaces citywide, and ensure that our public infrastructure serves everyone. We’re grateful to our Council champions, including Speaker Menin and Council Member Restler, who helped deliver on this critical step towards a more vibrant, livable city.