NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Bars in nine “bar-heavy areas” of New York City are seeing extra NYPD enforcement amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his daily briefing Wednesday.
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The NYPD is focusing on these neighborhoods: the Upper East Side; East Village; West Village; Lower East Side; Williamsburg; Long Island City; Astoria; Hell’s Kitchen; and City Island in the Bronx.
“Obviously the Upper East Side was an area of particular concern and that got a lot of attention,” de Blasio said after reports that bars in the neighborhood were especially busy in recent days.
De Blasio said there’s a “historic reality” to the bar-heavy areas but that “we will obviously watch if there’s other places that need to be addressed."
"So this can change based on what we see happening on the ground," he said.
The mayor also said the city has been “looking very intensely at what we can do with bars and restaurants” in the weeks ahead. He said the city has been speaking with people in the restaurant and bar industry about a plan for them to reopen while keeping the realities of the pandemic in mind.
De Blasio said bars and restaurants wouldn’t be open for dining in Phase 1 of reopening, which the city is expected to enter sometime between June 1 and June 15. He said outdoor dining could play a “crucial role” in the businesses’ reopening.
“We’re going to figure out how and when we can reopen bars and restaurants,” de Blasio said. “I think it is a very, very encouraging possibility to lean to the outdoors.”
“But even with that, we’ve got a lot to figure out in terms of social distancing, face coverings, protocols and what amount of capacity you could create that would make it worthwhile,” de Blasio said. “Bar and restaurant owners have been really clear they need a certain level of capacity for it to be economically viable.”
The mayor said even though bar and restaurant reopenings aren’t part of Phase 1, “we’ll have more to say on it soon.”