There’s not enough room for social distancing on a 20-foot-wide sidewalk in this NYC DOT Streetery View. City regulations require an 8′ path between the tables, but very few New York City sidewalks are wide enough for that requirement if there are tables on the sidewalk as well as in the parking lane. But most restaurant owners will tell you that they need more tables than they can fit in the parking lanes.

On Open Streets, one solution is move passersby who want to stay away from diners with no masks is to walk in the street. This has the added advantage in Phase 3 of allowing stores to used the sidewalk for outdoor tables too. See John Massengale’s Op-Ed “Change the Streets & Change the City” in Crain’s New York.

On Open Streets, one solution is move passersby who want to stay away from diners with no masks is to walk in the street. This has the added advantage in Phase 3 of allowing stores to used the sidewalk for outdoor tables too. See John Massengale’s Op-Ed “Change the Streets & Change the City” in Crain’s New York.

On regular city streets, another solution is to move passersby who want to stay away from diners with no masks into in the streets, with proper protection from traffic. This has the added advantage in Phase 3 of allowing stores to used the sidewalk for outdoor tables too. See John Massengale’s Op-Ed “Change the Streets & Change the City” in Crain’s New York.

On regular city streets, another solution is to move passersby who want to stay away from diners with no masks into in the streets, with proper protection from traffic. This has the added advantage in Phase 3 of allowing stores to used the sidewalk for outdoor tables too. See John Massengale’s Op-Ed “Change the Streets & Change the City” in Crain’s New York.

This view of a wide sidewalk on Broadway on the Upper West Side shows the social distancing problem in this standard New York City solution.

Cognac, Upper East Side.

Café Luluc, Brooklyn. Photo: Gersh Kuntzman