“New Yorkers love brunch; it’s part of our culture and we shouldn’t put up unnecessary obstacles to getting those omelets on a Sunday morning,” Mr. Garodnick said.
Council members Diana Reyna and Steven Levin also are sponsoring the bill. It has been endorsed by the NYC Restaurant Association and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, according to a statement from Mr. Garodnick’s office.
Tom Burrows, chairman of the public safety committee of Brooklyn’s Community Board 1, which includes Greenpoint, and the man leading charge the against Sunday-morning sidewalk restaurant service, said he had not had a chance to review the Council bill. He said, though, that the Council should focus on ramping up enforcement on local businesses who take up more of the sidewalk than they are permitted.
Msgr. Joseph Calise, pastor of the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and another member of the Community Board, said that he did not oppose changing the law. “I’m sure there are some in the neighborhood that don’t like that our church bells ring at 8 o’clock,” Monsignor Calise said. “There’d really be no reason not to support them as long as they’re not blocking free passage of anybody else.”
Anyway, he said, church and brunch can co-exist.
“If someone comes to an 8 a.m. Mass here, they go to a 10 o’clock brunch, it’s not an either/or proposition,” he said.
