• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    4 days ago

    None of those were freestanding food places, they were simply an outside dining area for places that already had inside dining areas that nobody wanted to uses during Covid. Those little seating booths were necessary during Covid, when nobody wanted to be trapped in sealed rooms with other strangers, but their usefulness has passed, and we are left with the problems.

    For one thing, they took away parking spaces, which are already extremely scarce. Secondly, because they are slightly raised, they made for a perfectly safe little living space for vermin under the floorboards. Thirdly, none of them were built with any kind of permits or regulations, and they were getting run down and poorly maintained, and that was only going to get worse. Finally, they’re only useable for only about half the year anyway.

    They were kind of neat during Covid, when everyone was trying anything they could to keep their businesses operating, and the government was willing to look the other way for a change, but those times have passed, and these things have become more trouble than they’re worth any more.

    • blarghly@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      For one thing, they took away parking spaces, which are already extremely scarce.

      Parking spaces should be scarce in NYC.

      Secondly, because they are slightly raised, they made for a perfectly safe little living space for vermin under the floorboards

      Lol, are you seriously trying to blame NYC’s rat problem on these? The problem has more to do with the large piles of garbage sitting on the street.

      Thirdly, none of them were built with any kind of permits or regulations

      Ooooh noooo, an unpermitted shed, noooo 😭

      Land in a city should be put to its highest and best use. Are these little seating areas the highest and best use? Maybe, maybe not. But the highest and best use definitely isn’t parked cars.