As the lockdown continues, a Council bill would make the city carve out space where restaurants could serve people outside.
[This briefing has ended. For the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak in the New York area, read Friday’s live coverage.]
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The City Council pushed to expand outdoor dining.
With the weather getting warmer and New Yorkers getting antsier, the New York City Council wants to force Mayor Bill de Blasio’s hand on outdoor dining.
The Council introduced legislation Thursday afternoon, backed by the restaurant industry, requiring the mayor to find a way to open streets, sidewalks and public plazas to outdoor dining.
Corey Johnson, the Council speaker, and Councilman Antonio Reynoso of Brooklyn are spearheading the effort. “The restaurant and the food industry has been struggling just as much as any other businesses in our city,” Mr. Reynoso said at the Council’s hearing on Thursday, adding that the process would be “something that can be done very quickly and in a timely fashion.”
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a business group, said the idea was to require the mayor to establish a framework to identify appropriate places for restaurants to sell food and beverages outside, and create a mechanism by which businesses and community boards could submit suggestions.
The bill would also require the city to set health and safety requirements for such operations.
“Our hope is there may be areas where entire streets could be shut down for restaurant service,” Mr. Rigie said. “Other places you may be able to extend the sidewalk, while keeping a lane of cars and bike lanes. Other places, you may be able to use pedestrian plazas. We really need to be creative.”
Last week, 24 council members sent a public letter to Mr. De Blasio urging him to create more space for outdoor dining, citing similar efforts in Cincinnati, Tampa, Fla., and Lithuania.
“New York City faces urgent crises on many fronts — but we must make sure that our bars and restaurants are able to survive and recover,” they wrote.
At the mayor’s daily briefing on Thursday, he noted that restaurants and bars were not among the businesses included in the state-permitted first phase of reopening, which the city hopes to enter in early June.
When they do come online, though, Mr. de Blasio said, “I’m hopeful that the outdoors can be a big part of the solution.”
Just east of the city in Nassau County, the county executive, Laura Curran, said on Twitter on Thursday that she planned to close main streets to vehicles in towns across the county this summer for dining and shopping, “creating a town square feeling with safe social distance.”
New York’s Legislature passed a rent relief bill.
After weeks of outcry from distressed New Yorkers demanding that housing payments be halted during the pandemic, the State Legislature passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to provide emergency rent relief for tenants.
The bill, which enacted the Emergency Rent Relief Act of 2020, would provide up to $100 million in rental assistance vouchers to landlords on behalf of tenants who are struggling to pay rent after losing a job during the health crisis.
The legislation would cover rent due from April 1 to July 31; as of late Thursday, it had yet to be formally delivered to Governor Cuomo, but would take effect immediately if and when he were to sign it.
The program would be funded with New York’s share of the $2 trillion CARES Act, the federal relief package passed several weeks ago.
Aides to Senator Brian Kavanagh, the Democratic chairman of his chamber’s housing committee, said the bill was one of several that state lawmakers had passed to address the current housing crisis.
Still, Mr. Kavanagh said in a statement: “Much more must be done to ensure that no New Yorker loses their home or is severely burdened by housing costs they can’t afford during this pandemic. We need substantial federal funding.”
N.J. governor says businesses vowing to defy rules are ‘playing with fire.’
Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said a coalition claiming to represent hundreds of businesses that plan to reopen in defiance of social distancing orders is “playing with fire.”
“We won’t stand for our civil liberties and rights to be infringed on to be able to make a living and have a healthy immune system to defend against the virus itself,” the group stated on Facebook.
Mr. Murphy, who was asked about the group at his daily news briefing on Thursday, said most restaurants and stores in the state were still complying with the shutdown measures.
“I hope folks will understand the rationale,” he said, citing data that shows the risk of infection from the coronavirus is greater indoors than outdoors.
The state reported 66 new virus-related deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 11,401. Also, 365 new patients were hospitalized on Wednesday — the most in two weeks. Mr. Murphy suggested the hospitalization number could be because health care workers were being cautious and now admitting patients who might have been turned away during the peak of the outbreak in April.
The governor noted that the uptick came as New Jersey was restarting parts of its economy. A full reopening has to be “done the right way, and at the right time,” he said.
Across the state line in New York, a few businesses owners are vowing to revolt, too. Earlier on Thursday, Bobby Catone, who owns two Sunbelievable tanning salons on Staten Island, opened one of them to customers. Soon, Joe Borelli, a local New York City Council member, showed up to buy some sunblock. And then the police swooped in, giving Mr. Catone a summons and forcing him to close shop.
Mr. Catone and his lawyer, Louis Gelormino, estimated that hundreds of Staten Islanders had showed up at the salon to show support for Mr. Catone.
“We’re going to fight to win,” Mr. Catone said. “You don’t fight to lose. Winners don’t quit. And who knows, maybe with all this pressure, they’ll ease up the restrictions.”
A new routine: staying put inside circles at Domino Park.
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Face masks, 7 p.m. cheers, and Xs and squares indicating where to stand. Governor Cuomo’s daily briefings and frequent dad jokes.
As the pandemic took hold, New Yorkers quickly grew accustomed to their new and previously unthinkable customs.
Take the briefings, for instance. “I watch you every single day,” the comedian Chris Rock told the governor on Thursday. “You bring me calm. You bring me joy.”
Then there are the symbols, which are seemingly everywhere in New York City: the green and purple Xs on the ground outside Whole Foods Market, the white chalk squares at green markets.
But perhaps most distinct shapes are the approximately 30 white circles on the artificial turf Flex Field at Domino Park, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The circles are eight feet in diameter and six feet apart, and they designate where to sit and relax while maintaining social distancing at the often-crowded park.
Mike Lampariello, the director of Domino Park, said the circles, which debuted on May 15, were made with 99-cent cans of chalk paint over about four hours. They get a touch up about once a week, he said.
Many other parks in the city have, for now, opted for a different system.
“Keep This Far Apart” signs were installed at Prospect Park, among other green spaces. Deborah Kirschner, a vice president of marketing and communication for the Prospect Park Alliance said, “Due to the size of the park and our grass meadows, circles similar to those placed on Domino Park’s artificial turf would unfortunately be difficult to place and maintain.”
But, she said, the alliance was working closely with the Department of Parks and Recreation to spread the message about social distancing.
N.Y. businesses can deny entry to people not wearing face coverings, Cuomo says.
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Governor Cuomo said on Thursday he would issue an executive order authorizing any business in New York State to deny entry to people who were not wearing face coverings.
“We’re giving the store owners the right to say, if you’re not wearing a mask, you can’t come in,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That store owner has a right to protect themselves. That store owner has a right to protect the other patrons in that store.”
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‘A Conflict Waiting to Erupt’: Cuomo Makes New Push for Wearing Masks
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York warned that residents who aren’t wearing masks in public could amplify tensions. The comedian Chris Rock joined the governor at his daily news briefing.
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“New York is 19 million people who start with the premise we can all live together in a very close area, right? Part of that acknowledgment is we’re going to respect one another. And we’re going to respect each other’s space and add, we’re going to respect each other’s air — to respecting each other’s space, right? We’re going to respect each other’s air, wear a mask. Look, it’s one thing if you don’t wear a mask and you’re walking down the sidewalk. That’s one situation. You don’t wear a mask and you walk into a small retail store, and now you’re exposing people to you without a mask. And they’re surprised by this and they’re in a smaller confined space. That is a conflict waiting to erupt, right?” “Well, in Brooklyn, I’m seeing probably 40 percent, people wear a mask — you know just, it’s the kids really aren’t wearing a mask and you know, it’s sad. It’s sad that it’s become, that our health has become, you know, sort of a political issue. You know, it’s almost you know, it’s a status symbol almost to not wear a mask.”
Mr. Cuomo also delivered the state’s daily fatality report: 74 more people died of the coronavirus, about the same as the previous two days.
The governor delivered his briefing at a Boys and Girls Club in Flatbush, Brooklyn, one of the areas hit hardest by the virus, and was joined by the comedian Chris Rock and the actor Rosie Perez. Both of them grew up in Brooklyn and amplified the governor’s message on the importance of face coverings.
Mr. Rock said he saw many young people in Brooklyn with faces uncovered.
“It’s sad that our health has become sort of a political issue,” Mr. Rock said. “It’s a status symbol almost, to not wear a mask.”
Later on Thursday, in an interview with WAMC, Mr. Cuomo noted that as early as Friday, experts would begin analyzing the public health data in the five state regions that restarted their economies on May 15.
If the results are satisfactory, the governor said, those areas could soon start “Phase 2” of the reopening plan, during which professionals services, finance and real estate businesses will be able to resume in-person operations. In-store shopping will also be allowed.
At least 200,000 may return to work when N.Y.C. starts reopening, mayor says.
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Between 200,000 and 400,000 unemployed New Yorkers could head back to work when the city begins the first phase of reopening, which could come as soon as early June, Mayor de Blasio said on Thursday.
The figure represents over 20 percent of the 885,000 private-sector jobs that the city has lost during the pandemic.
Under the state’s phased reopening plan, when a region meets seven health-related benchmarks, construction and manufacturing can resume, along with nonessential retail sales for curbside or in-store pickup only.
“The vast majority say they’re ready,” Mr. de Blasio said of the city’s shuttered business operations.
New York City is the only region in the state yet to meet all seven benchmarks — it does not have enough hospital beds available or contact tracers in place.
More than 40 million people — approximately one in four U.S. workers — have lost their jobs nationwide because of the pandemic, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday.
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Reporting was contributed by Maria Cramer, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Dana Rubinstein, Matt Stevens and Katie Van Syckle.
