Mayor de Blasio Extends Open Storefronts, Adds in Stores that Sell Pre-Packaged Foods

By Yehudit Garmaise

  Mayor Bill de Blasio signed today, an executive order that extended the city’s Open Storefronts program through Sept. 30, 2021, while adding into the program stores and restaurants that sell pre-packaged foods and also now allowing the use of sidewalks for restaurants sell take-out.

   “We want to allow restaurants and other food stores to get out there and make their products available for take out right there on the sidewalk,” the mayor said today at his press conference. We think that [selling outside] is going to help them as they continue to fight to survive in this tough environment.

      “We want to keep helping our local businesses in every way possible, so our Open Storefronts program has been a key new innovation to give people the opportunity to sell their wares out on the street, where a lot of people, of course, feel more comfortable shopping at this moment."

    Mayor de Blasio spoke about the extension of his Open Storefronts program as part of all of the efforts the city is doing to recover and be “reborn” in 2021.

   “New York City is going to recover,” said the mayor, “and we are going to recover because of the amazing spirit, ingenuity, the drive, the entrepreneurship that is just part of the DNA of this place.”

   “That is particularly true when it comes to our local small businesses, our mom-and-pop stores, the businesses that people have built with their own hands, family businesses that make such a difference.

      Jonelle Doris, the commission of the city’s Small Business Services (SBS), explained that the pandemic forced the city to “reimagine the way that we look at our public spaces.

  “The extension of the Open Storefronts program will help our small businesses to survive this pandemic.”

Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.