Sidewalks of New York . . .
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The painting above, Renoir’s “Dance at the Moulin de la Galette,” captures some of the energy of Paris street life that, at least until the French emerged as Saddam Hussein’s allies, attracted so many Americans to Paris. Part of the excitement, as the painting shows, comes from the sidewalk café tables that provide a perfect perch from which to observe the passing throngs.
The scene makes us think of the connection between economic freedom and cultural vitality. Here in New York in recent years, it’s been harder to get permits to establish sidewalk cafés. Until recently, a restaurant owner that wanted to set up tables on the sidewalk had to fill out a 17-page questionnaire, deal with multiple city agencies, and wait up to 400 days.
Those restrictions, which date back to 1979, stunted small businesses struggling to survive and thrive in a city that too often took them for granted — or simply milked them for every last tax dollar without giving them a climate in which to grow.
Enter the Department of City Planning, led by Commissioner Amanda Burden. As part of a wider effort to streamline the sidewalk café application process, she has proposed a change in zoning that would let many Manhattan restaurants put out a single row of tables hugging the side of their building, and let them do it in time for summer. “The health of a city can be measured by the vitality of street life,” Ms. Burden says, as our Julie Satow reported yesterday.
The sidewalk café proposal is just one way that Ms. Burden and her planning commission are moving to unleash entrepreneurial energy in the city. She’s also streamlined the environmental review process and created conditions for privately led development projects to move forward along the Brooklyn waterfront and in Downtown Brooklyn.
By our lights, New York is already a finer city than Paris. But by the time Ms. Burden’s reforms are implemented, this city’s streets will be livelier than ever. If there’s a reader who can show us that the Paris that Renoir painted in 1876 had a yearlong, 17-page approval process for sidewalk cafés — well, we’ll buy you a baguette on the boulevard of your choice.
