What Will Congestion Pricing Do to Manhattan Dining?
The New York Times
Days into the new charges, some restaurant owners say suppliers are raising prices. Others are giving customer discounts, and many fear the fallout for workers.
The sky did not fall during the first week of Manhattan’s congestion pricing. But you wouldn’t have known that by talking to restaurant owners in the affected zone, who are in a state of high anxiety.
The charges — $9 for a car or van, up to $21.60 for a truck entering Manhattan below 60th Street between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. — went into effect on Sunday. Virtually all the boroughs’s luxury dining options are in the zone, along with thousands of smaller restaurants that feed Midtown, SoHo, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Chelsea and more.
The new charges, ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul, are meant to relieve traffic and pollution, and raise money for the city’s beleaguered transit system. And while many restaurant owners agree those are worthy goals, they were far more preoccupied this week with how the charges will affect their employees, deliveries, customers and costs.
“This is all anyone is talking about,” said Todd McMullen, the manager of Steak Frites, a bistro in Hell’s Kitchen near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel. He said the constant noise and pollution on Ninth Avenue have been a longstanding problem, so he hopes the charges thin traffic.
But since the trucking companies that bring in essentials like produce, meat, liquor and laundry will pass the new costs on to restaurants, he added, ”there’s no way this doesn’t cost us money in the immediate future.”
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