You are reading

Mayor Adds Three Queens Plazas and New Street to Outdoor Dining Program

Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights (Google Maps)

Aug. 17, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Three pedestrian plazas and one block in Queens will be made into outdoor dining corridors for nearby restaurants as the latest locations added to the city initiative to support local eateries.

Corona Plaza in Corona, Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights and 71st Avenue Plaza in Ridgewood will get more tables and chairs for surrounding restaurants to serve patrons outside, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.

An adjacent block to Diversity Plaza, 37th Road from 75th Street to 74th Street, will also close to traffic on weekends to allow eateries to use the roadway as an ad hoc dining area.

De Blasio announced 21 more locations for the city’s “Open Streets: Restaurants” initiative Friday, including the three Queens plazas and a Jackson Heights block.

The new borough locations are additional to four already-announced Queens streets that are part of the program to help restaurants bounce back from the months-long COVID-19 shutdown.

Last month, he announced that the city’s in-street dining program will run through October, instead of its original end date on Labor Day.

“Rebuilding a fairer and better city means using our urban landscape creatively, and I’m proud to build on the success of our Open Streets program,” he said in a statement. “New Yorkers have sacrificed so much during this crisis and they deserve the opportunity to safely enjoy their neighborhoods and communities.”

Other Queens streets that are closed to traffic on weekends for outdoor dining are listed below.

(NYC DOT)

The hours for weekend dining are 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday nights and noon to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

There are 76 participating streets and nine pedestrian plazas citywide.

Indoor dining remains closed indefinitely to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

2 Comments

Click for Comments 
Jimmy

If it’s possible, it may be dirtier in diversity plaza now then it was when the porn theater, the topless bar and the gay bar were there. It was probably cleaner back in the 1970s thru the 1980s

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Fall fun in western Queens: Your guide to the best seasonal events

Aug. 29, 2025 By Jessica Militello

With beach days and summer BBQs behind us, the start of September rings in the start of magnificent Fall foliage, Halloween and more fun activities that come with the start of Autumn, including a list of Fall events in the area. From apple picking to seasonal ciders and more, there is tons to explore in the community. From Mystic Markets to scary movie meet-ups and more, here is a list of Fall events you do not want to miss.

Fresh Meadows MS-13 gang associate sentenced to nearly a half-century in prison for murder of Corona teen in Kissena Park: Feds

An MS-13 gang associate from Fresh Meadows was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison on Tuesday, Aug. 26, for the 2018 slaying of a Corona teenager in Flushing’s Kissena Park.

Juan Amaya-Ramirez, 27, and his co-defendant Oscar Flores-Mejia, 25, from Elmhurst, who is also an associate of the transnational criminal organization, pleaded guilty to the murder of 17-year-old Andy Peralta in Brooklyn federal court last September.

AG’s office launches investigation into death of man run over by police officer in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) has launched a probe into the death of a civilian on Saturday, Aug. 23, following a motor vehicle collision involving NYPD officers in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

At approximately 4:37 p.m., an NYPD officer from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst was driving westbound in a marked police cruiser, a 2015 Ford Taurus, at around 10 miles per hour in front of the Queens Theater on United Nations Avenue South, across from the Unisphere, when the vehicle ran over a man who was allegedly lying face up on the roadway prior to the collision, police said.