City Comptroller Mark Levine launched an investigation into the Big Apple’s popular outdoor dining program — citing concerns that more than half of restaurant applicants are stuck in limbo.
Levine sent a letter Thursday requesting records related to the program’s approval and review process to Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn and the director of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, Kim L. Yu.
City Comptroller Mark Levine launched an investigation into NYC’s popular outdoor dining program. Getty Images“Regrettably, my office hears regularly about issues related to the permitting process, which is deeply concerning,” Levine wrote to the agency heads.
“Restaurants are struggling to cut the red tape on a slow and cumbersome permitting process,” he added.
Levine noted that the DOT has submitted a mere 1,225 permit applications for the program — with over 62% of those not submitted until this year.
The comptroller’s office also found a total of 2,390 eateries were still waiting for approval as of January — a tiny fraction of the city’s estimated 25,000 restaurants. As of this month, there are 2,232 roadway and sidewalk cafes allowed to operate, either with full authorization of temporary authorization, according to city data.
There are 919 more establishments not authorized to open outdoor dining but working through the process with 670 of them on pause because they haven’t submitted required information, the data showed.
“With summer approaching, DOT and MOCS must streamline and make more transparent their review process and approve sidewalk and roadway cafés in time for the season,” Levine said in the memo.
The comptroller’s office registers the permits given out to restaurants — and since 2024 has allowed DOT to let agency-approved restaurants operate their outdoor dining spaces while waiting for official permits to speed up the process.
Levine is concerned that more than half of restaurant applicants for outdoor dining are stuck in limbo. Getty ImagesThe comptroller’s office is required to register the permits within 30 days of businesses receiving agency approval — and Levine noted concern that the MOCS and DOT do not have similar time limits.
Levine is requesting details and documents from the agencies that include step-by-step approval processes, the number of DOT staff working on the restaurant applications, and the actual timeframe for review per application.
The new law has criticized as unnecessary onerous and complex, with a 30-day window on roadway applications to allow for Community Board and City Council comments while sidewalk cafes have a separate process that includes a 40-day review period for Community Boards and a 45-day review period for the City Council.
Roadway cafe applications require a public hearing as well, with applicants required to pay for advertised notice of the hearing.
A DOT spokesperson said the Mamdani administration is “working every day to help small businesses thrive, including by supporting outdoor dining — a program New Yorkers love and restaurants depend on.
“These participation numbers show exactly what we warned about: seasonality and a lengthy, bureaucratic approval process are making it harder for restaurants to participate,” spokesperson Will Livingston said. “The City Council should act quickly to reform the outdoor dining law and remove unnecessary hurdles that lengthen the application process and deter participation.”
