By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Abandoned sidewalk cafés have been inviting vandalism and infringing on much needed sidewalk space in the neighborhood, local Councilwoman Gail Brewer claims.
Brewer is now looking to enforce the cleanup or removal of the three or four enclosed sidewalk cafés that have sat vacant for years and become eyesores in her Upper West Side district.
But finding a solution to the problem has proven a difficult task involving a tangle of city agencies.
"We are trying to find some kind of way that if the restaurant goes away, the structure will not sit there for seven years," Brewer said, referring to a particular sidewalk enclosure attached to a long-gone Thai restaurant on W. 69th Street and Amsterdam Avenue that was abandoned and now attracts graffiti.
Enforcement is complicated by the fact that three city agencies must respond to the issue: The Department of Transportation, because the enclosures sit on the sidewalk; the Department of Consumer Affairs, which issues licenses for the structures; and the Department of Buildings, because the enclosures are attached to buildings.
All the departments, plus the Mayor's Office and the local community board, have met several times with Brewer — so far to no avail.
"There seems to be a disconnect between DCA and DOB on these matters," Andrew Albert, co-chair of Community Board 7’s Transportation Committee, said in an e-mail.
Neither department returned calls for comment.
Still, the inter-agency meetings are going to continue until a solution is reached, Brewer explained.
"It is not an easy problem to address," she said.
