Comparison between Open Restaurants and Open Restaurants on Open Streets across 3 Metrics

During the Covid-19 pandemic, New York City implemented outdoor dining initiatives and the Open Streets program to support the struggling hospitality industry and alleviate crowding.

Two years later, the city decided to make the Open Restaurants program permanent. This study aimed to assess the impacts of these initiatives by analyzing correlations between the data collected over the past two years using Python as well as mapping and visualization packages such as GeoPandas and Plotly respectively.

Correlations between various metrics and the number of outdoor restaurants showed a positive relationship with crashes and rodent sightings, suggesting public concerns. Notably, when comparing pre- and post-program periods, there was a positive correlation between rat sightings and Open Restaurant density, supporting anecdotal reports. Additionally, there was a negative correlation between crashes and Open Restaurant density, indicating that the program may have improved road safety. The general relationships do seem to mirror the relationships of Open Restaurants not on Open Streets and the metrics, allowing the study to tentatively claim that Open Streets do not mitigate or exacerbate the impacts of Open Restaurants.

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