NEW YORK — City residents are split when it comes to what’s taking over the streets of New York.  Some love outdoor dining.

“I think it’s a lifeline that restaurants have right now and I hope it stays,” said Sam Nidel, a New York restaurant owner himself. 

Others, not so much.

“This is the first time since all these things popped up, the first time the two of us have sat down and dined outdoors,” said a New Yorker who didn’t want to be named. “I don’t like it.”

On Tuesday, a City Council sub-committee is hosting a remote hearing to talk about whether to make outdoor dining in the city permanent. 

Many restaurant owners are all for it. 

“Outdoor makes it more amenable to the guests, more comfortable for them to have an option to be able to sit indoors and outdoors,” said Abraham Merchant, owner of Merchant NY in Chelsea, and 13 other restaurants in the city.

City Council Member Majorie Velazquez drafted the proposal at the request of Mayor Eric Adams. 

The plan would regulate outdoor dining, and lay a framework for the application and approval process for restaurants that want to offer an outdoor option to diners.

Before COVID, restaurant owners had to get a permit and pay a fee for sidewalk seating.

During the pandemic, that fee has been waived. 

Merchant says the price that’s set going forward shouldn’t be more than that original cost. 

“It should not be cost-prohibitive,” Merhcant said. “But I hope that it is a lot less than that, because it will really encourage business to re-open again.”

Many New Yorkers have spoken out against outdoor dining, saying it leads to crowded sidewalks, more traffic, less parking, more trash, and more noise. 

For one couple, who didn’t want to be named, it’s not about the physical structures. 

“It’s not about the loveliness or the coziness or all the beautiful designs of the outdoor dining. I don’t like the way life is being re-engineered. The re-engineering of society, to live online, or be separate, to think that it’s unsafe to dine indoors together. Plexiglass, you know, plexiglass, it’s all of our lives now. Plexiglass, what is that?” he said. 

Proponents say they like having the options.

“When you dine with friends or family and some of them are immunocompromised or not as comfortable dining indoors yet, it gives them an extra option,” Nidel said. “Flexible, it’s flexibility, simply put.”

Merchant says it’s about being able to adapt.

“I think this would give businesses a good opportunity to stay open and survive, and it’ll make the city of New York what the city of New York is,” Merchant said.

If it passes, the proposal would replace the temporary plan former Mayor Bill de Blasio put in place in June 2020.

Nothing final will be determined at Tuesday’s remote hearing.

A final vote will be held sometime later down the road.