#Mayoral hopeful put guard at restaurant to protect from wild NYC streets

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Owner Fahiyan Ahmed sets up and cleans for outdoor dining at LIC Grill in Queens.
Brian Zak/NY Post

A struggling Queens restaurant finally took advantage of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sidewalk-seating rules Tuesday — no thanks to Hizzoner.

A security guard began protecting the LIC Grill and its customers from the druggies and vagrants plaguing its Long Island City block after a prospective mayoral candidate arranged for the help that the city failed to provide.

Sara Tirschwell, who’s considering a Republican run for City Hall next year, said she got Quality Protection Patrol Services to supply the guard for free after learning about the restaurant’s plight from The Post last week.

“I read the article and I thought to myself: This is the problem in New York City. The guys in power don’t care about the little guys,” she said.

Quality Protection owner Scott Soifer said he’s sending the “well-equipped-looking, imposing fellow” to the LIC Grill for two weeks because, “as a fellow community member, I’m glad to provide the service.”

“I’m seeing what other people are turning a blind eye to, which is 1980s crime — the resurgence of it — and it’s frightening,” he said.

Four patrons enjoyed a late lunch outside the LIC Grill on Tuesday afternoon, with Saleh Taluqdar, 22, saying the guard made him “a lot more comfortable.”

“I’m around here a lot, so I would say walking through here, I didn’t feel the safest,” he said.

Earlier in the day, de Blasio claimed that “the restaurants that are using the outdoor space, a lot of them are reporting that they actually have more seating outdoors than they saw indoors before.”

LIC Grill co-owner Fahiyan Ahmed called that assertion “completely false,” and said de Blasio “should get out of his office and walk the streets like other mayors.”

“We can have, like, 16 seats in here. To have social distancing between customers outside, that’s four seats,” Ahmed said.