By Gus Saltonstall
A popular Upper West Side restaurant is trying its best to get city officials to relocate a parking ticket machine outside its entrance. The goal: to give Cafe Luxembourg a little more space for outdoor dining — and to deprive the “numerous passing dogs” of a favorite place where they relieve themselves, just steps from both the cafe entrance and its outdoor diners.
The effort so far has been unsuccessful, though.
Cafe Luxembourg at 200 West 70th Street, near the corner of Amsterdam Avenue, recently asked the city’s Department of Transportation to relocate a “muni-meter,” at the restaurant’s own expense, to a nearby location on the same block.
Owner Steven Abramowitz told West Side Rag that the restaurant requested the city move the parking ticket machine to one of two proposed locations, one east and one west of its current site. Moving the machine would allow Cafe Luxembourg to add a table to its outdoor dining section while also providing more space for pedestrians, according to Abramowitz.
The restaurant was recently approved for a new season of outdoor dining on the sidewalk in front. The outdoor season is set to begin in April, and the city’s Department of Transportation requires specific clearance on the sidewalk between permanently fixed objects — such as the parking ticket machine — and the curb and sidewalk seating options.
The restaurant also wants the machine moved because of its current proximity to the front door, just east of the entrance.
“The majority of guests enter and exit the restaurant to the east towards Broadway,” Abramowitz wrote in an email to the Rag. “Regardless of whether the sidewalk cafe is in use or not, the muni-meter at that location is not ideal since there are guests coming and going in the same vicinity.”
Abramowitz also noted that the machine “is used regularly by the numerous passing dogs as a post to relieve themselves — clearly not ideal for a food establishment.”
The parking ticket machine in front of Cafe Luxembourg will not be moving, though. In a written response from the Department of Transportation, shared with the Rag by the restaurant and City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office, city officials said simply: “it is our policy not to relocate the City’s Street furniture (i.e. mini-meter).”
“We think the request to move the Muni-meter was for good reasons but since it was refused we will make the best of the situation as is,” Abramowitz wrote to West Side Rag.
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Sidewalks need to be kept clear. Everything that right now goes on the sidewalk – parking meters, garbage cans, mail boxes, trees, etc – should over time be moved off the sidewalk and into parking spots.
Agree!!!!
Stick it in your “bike lane”.
Up*
And the parking spaces on avenues that become traffic lanes during rush “hour”?
Isn’t it the other way around? You have traffic lanes turned into double parking spots because there’s no enforcement.
How is this related to what I said or what you initially commented?
By that would you include outdoor restaurant seating?
Wow, what a silly idea. Trees in the street. Wow just wow.
Streets and parking spots are not the same thing. Streets and sidewalks both need to be kept clear to move people. Parking spots are great if there is room for them, but they should be last in line.
A parking lane is part of the street just because you don’t own a car doesn’t mean no else does.
A minority of people own cars and we should do everything we can to help them, but everyone walks and everyone depends on streets for delivery. Movement has to come first and parking should fill in where there’s room.
They can spray the area around the machine with commercially available products that keep dogs from relieving themselves in front of the restaurant.
In fact, they should.
Those don’t work.
Bleach ordinary bleach does work
Try it.
Ironically perhaps, for quite some time (about 2 years?) Cafe Luxembourg’s street shed was so long that it blocked the entrance to the building next door, 200 West 70th Street.
Yes, living on 70th we would cross the street to avoid walking that stretch of sidewalk because between the sidewalk tables, waiters, people talking to the hostess, no one could get through. Nevermind the countless strollers because of the playground and school next door. They could have given up the four sidewalk tables and alleviated a lot of that, but no.
Obviously the city can’t move these machines to accommodate restaurants. I know Cafe Luxembourg has been there for a long time but many restaurants have short lives. The city would incur expenses moving them and there would be little benefit
Did you not read the article? The restaurant offered to pay.
I have to say Cafe Luxembourg is overrated not to mention they must feel so entitled even to think of something like this. I live in the neighborhood and they took advantage of the Covid situation for so long and crowded the sidewalk. Not having to see their outdoor shed is such a relief. Let the dogs pee, please.
This is a great restaurant with great food. There are so few classics like this in our neighborhood. I’d be very sad to see it go–and I’m disappointed that the City isn’t more supportive of business establishments.
I’ve dined there for decades myself and it is decent at best. You might wanna venture out and try different restaurants, too. But, putting aside our different preferences in restaurants, this is not a simple matter of being supportive of a local favorite. Do this then what? There will be more requests and who decides what to do to what standards? Obviously, some people have been inconvenienced by the situation as well. Oh, mind you they had occupied the space that would have belonged to the next restaurant that was out of business, too. Luxembourg was doing fine without that monstrous shed. To me, it just seems greedy.
Do not relocate! 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Don’t touch that popular sidewalk parking ticket machine!
My dog depends on that machine every morning! That is the first place he….. “goes”!🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
Let your dog pee on your table leg,furniture bathtub kitchen sink in your apt.
Rude
Lighten up
LMAO❗️
Sadly, people let their dogs pee everywhere – on schools, churches, bus shelters, planters in front of restaurants, trash bags, trash bins etc.
(BTW sanitation workers picking up trash have to deal with this daily)
Even if the meter was moved, people would still let their dogs pee by the restaurant.
True, removing the parking meter would just the dog owners to let their dogs use the restaurant barriers, tables, trash cans, etc.
The sheds block the sidewalks. This meter is the least of the concerns.
I do not see a reason that this article is stirring up so much fuss regarding cars, parking and bike lanes. The restaurant made a perfectly reasonable request to address a problem at no expense to the city. The city has already concluded as a matter of policy that outdoor dining is a good thing. Yet the bureaucracy denied the request with the non substantive excuse that it does not do what was requested. We need our city govt to be sensible and responsive. Why are our so called reps on city council collecting their compensation if they do not guide the city employees to function properly? They want to be reelected yet all they seem to do is bloviate about big ideas with no helpful or meaningful impact. They need to serve us as their constituents to whom they report.
The City has a set of standards for placement of these muni-meters that has to be followed. It can’t just alter its policies for those who offer to pay for expense of moving a meter. That puts others who can’t pony up the money at a disadvantage.
Also, moving the meter in either direction would inconvenience those who need to walk further to use them. They’re spaced out a certain way for a reason.
It’s laughable to claim the meter is steps away from their entrance; there’s a good amount of distance between the two. What’s next…asking the City to move fire hydrants and bus stops?
I adore animals and dogs in particular. I find dog owners to be irresponsible and uncaring where their dogs relieve themselves. Right in the middle of the sidewalk. I see it all the time. What happened to curb your dog. I find pet owners today only care about themselves. As I find most people. Pet owners or not
Remove the parking meter and put it in one of the parking spots. Don’t let restaurants set up tables on the sidewalk, let them take a few parking spots. So tired of pedestrians being the last concern with sidewalks these days.
Dog owner here. Maybe I’m off base here, but is it that hard to make sure your dog doesn’t relieve him/her self right of in front of a restaurant, or for that matter, any entrance/exit people frequent? Seems like common courtesy to me.
Thank you for being considerate.
Thank you! You are the rare human who really is as wonderful as their dog thinks they are. In my experience, dogs want to please their humans even more than they want to pee in a particular spot, so it isn’t that hard to train them to look for the curb.
So who manufactures these and how much have they donate to whose campaigns. They are a dreadful intrusion and unnecessary. Get rid of them and the SBS also known as Stupid bus Service. They are awful. Get rid of all of them.
Why can’t NYC be pro business especially for smaller businesses?? Why do they have to make things more difficult for people who pay taxes/who sustain the economy in the city???!!!
Actually this City has done a lot to support the restaurant sector, particularly with the giveaway of street shed space.
But the City has done nothing for local retail which is really suffering due to high rent, ecommerce
Have you ever seen a parking ticket machine in person? Did you look at the photo? These machines do NOT interfere with responsibly run sidewalk seating.
Lol I love how delicately it was put for ‘a post on which the passing dogs ‘relieve themselves.’
Sorry, but your outdoor cafe (which is basically a “gift” from the City) does not outweigh the City’s siting of parking meters and other necessary items.
I am laughing so hard….do people really believe that humans can control when a dog relieves himself? People need to get out of the city and back to nature a bit more. There is only so much control we have over the animal kingdom. Enjoy animals. We are the difficult species, not them.
To the people suggesting the parking meter be relocated into the street: if you do that, the street sweeper can’t clean that area. And snow can’t be removed. Plus they would get knocked over constantly by passing sanitation trucks trying to fit down narrow streets. Then the city would have to constantly replace them at a cost.