Eating Through Streetscapes: Food, Frontage, and Public Space in NYC

Food and the built environment in New York have been intertwined for generations. From Nathan Handwerker opening his namesake hot dog cart in Coney Island in 1916, to Mayor LaGuardia moving food vendors off the street to improve cleanliness, to the iconic designs of institutions such as Katz's and Junior's, our city's public spaces are defined by food. It was through this lens that on Thursday, October 8, the 2026 AIANY Civic Leadership Program held its first public event, led by Harry Abrams, Jess Mitchell, Sami Mohamed, and Sherry Aine Te, investigating the relationship between food, frontage, and public space.

The event began with an interactive exercise as attendees filtered in, where a communal table with plates, maps, and images encouraged guests to think about their personal experiences with outdoor dining. Alongside this interactive exercise, the hosts presented their interviews with restaurant owners across the Lower East Side and Jackson Heights to provide context for the subsequent discussion and show the perspectives of restaurant owners impacted by the regulatory and design frameworks set out by the evening's panelists. Key insights from those conversations included the benefits of both aesthetic and functional decisions such as wide-open windows and benches, as well as the impacts of the street, such as proximity to other small businesses and wide lanes on Delancey Street facilitating unpleasant traffic noise.

Panelists from NYC DOT began the presentation: Kyle Gorman, Director of Public Realm Programs, and Maithri Shankar, Program Manager for Dining Out NYC. In recent months, Mayor Mamdani signed Int. 655, reestablishing year-round outdoor dining on city streets, a decision set to reshape the landscape around how we dine out. DOT provided context surrounding the benefits of this decision and highlighted opportunities that year-round dining would bring to restaurants across the city. Alexis Luna and Aakanksha Jain, Senior Urban Designers at WXY, then provided insight on the various elements of dining shed design and the adaptations required across street typologies as shaped by DOT's curbside regulations, including the impacts of constraints such as sidewalk and curb cut clearances. However, a key factor previously impacting design-the importance of structures that could be easily taken down during winter months-will change under the new legislation, with more restaurants opting into the Dining Out NYC program due to reduced costs associated with disassembly and storage.

Representing the Small Business Services' Neighborhood Planning Division, Director Andrew Marcus and Project Managers Zaxx Abraham and Ana Gross delved into their work supporting streetscape activation and its benefits to local restaurants and food vendors. Lastly, Nina LoSchiavo, Chief Operating Officer, and Brady Rice, Economic & Community Development Director, both from the Lower East Side Partnership, detailed their on-the-ground support with commercial retailers on key corridors such as Orchard and Essex Streets, with open streets initiatives contributing to 132.4% growth in retail and restaurant employment. The discussion emphasized how a positive consumer experience with the streetscape at dining establishments has downstream impacts not only on restaurants, but also on their workers.

After a series of questions from both the hosts and audience, as the event concluded, the hosts encouraged audience members to consider their roles as they related to the topic. Everyone from restaurant owners, designers, and community partners to residents and visitors taking advantage of the plethora of food choices New York City has to offer-we can all contribute towards shaping the relationship between food and public space.