Manhattan restaurant owners claim city tore down dining shed without notice; DOT says they sent several notifications
NEW YORK -- Owners of a Manhattan restaurant are claiming the city tore down their dining shed without reason or warning, but the city's Department of Transportation says they sent several notifications.
Mimi Blitz and Wesley Wobles say they spent $25,000 building their sidewalk dining shed for Pinky's Space on the Lower East Side. They claim after a DOT inspection, they were asked to remove a large planter and a trash can, but the city later tore down the entire structure.
The DOT says they sent several notifications, including a cease-and-desist in August, because the shed was too far from the curb, didn't have reflective materials, was not ADA accessible and covered a manhole.
The DOT says another notice was issued Oct. 4 and another a week after that.
"I don't think that any of the compliance issues that we were dealing with, because they had new ones every single time they came, I don't think that what we did deserved what happened," Blitz said. "There were no safety issues."
When asked about the issue Friday, Mayor Eric Adams said his team will be looking into the matter.