Aug. 28, 2020 By Allie Griffin
A section of Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria is the latest Queens street to turn into an outdoor dining corridor on weekends.
The boulevard, from 33rd Street to 36th Street, will close to traffic on weekends and open for outdoor restaurant seating, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.
The road was one of six streets across the boroughs unveiled today that were added to the city’s “Open Streets: Restaurants” initiative. It’s also the sixth Queens street added to the program.
The city initiative is meant to help restaurants bring in business, while reducing the spread of COVID-19, as the virus is harder to transmit outdoors. The reopening of indoor dining is indefinitely postponed in New York City.
Other Queens streets that have become dining corridors each weekend are listed below.
37th Road, from 75th Street to 74th Street in Jackson Heights
70th Road, from Austin Street to Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills
Austin Street, from 72nd Avenue to 72nd Road in Forest Hills
Bell Boulevard, from 39th Avenue to 41st Avenue in Bayside
Woodside Avenue, from 76th Street to 78th Street in Elmhurst
The hours for most of the street closures are from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday nights and noon to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays — unless otherwise specified. The streets are open to pedestrians and emergency vehicles only during those hours.
Today’s announcement brings the citywide total to 81 participating streets in the Open Streets: Restaurants program, which runs through Oct. 31.
On Thursday, the mayor suggested he may extend the city’s outdoor dining program past its Halloween end-date.
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8 Comments
Really doesn’t matter anyway… unless they open indoors all these restaurants will be bankrupt by Dec. Let’s see how many people want to live in NYC with no offices and no entertainment. What a joke.
Yeah, it’s a good thing they closed 5 blocks of heavily trafficked streets on 31st ave all day (8-8), every day for those 4 people doing yoga in the morning and that one guy reading a book on Thursdays. What a mess this city has become under this idiotic leadership. Open indoors, once real, this virus has now become a political hoax.
This is one sad sack city, Deblasio is going to bankrupt nyc
This will not change the fact that Deblasao is incompetent and Cuomo is a murderer.
This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard! Walking down Ditmars is already challenging with the crowds! Stick to sidewalk eating or street! Not both! Now you’re going to shut down a few blocks for this. Or for pedestrian walking… give me a break! Instead of focusing on these restaurants … focus on what’s going on with the schools and what’s best for kids! His priorities are not where they need to be.
Thank God…..our brainless mayor and governor are finally allowing restaurants to conduct business and try to stay in business. Astoria and ditmars are the food capital of queens. It’s been too long to not allow these business to operate and make a living. We must support our neighborhood restaurants and use smart dining practices both by patrons and owner keeping social distancing. We will get through this pandemic together. See you in the mother land “Astoria ” this weekend….
This is absolutely obscured! Streets are for traffic and restaurants are need to open their INSIDE for customers. If the restaurants cannot accommodate people they need to go out of business.
Closing off streets so people can eat in the gutter without being run over by a vehicle is the only positive here. Business owners need to keep up the fight to allow indoor dining. There are no plans in place and people need to be outraged when every other region in the state allows it. Disgraceful