EDITORIAL
STOP DRAGGING FEET
ON INDOOR DINING
Mayor Bill de Blasio insists that public schools
are safe to reopen under the “blended model”
plan. Though disagreements have arisen,
the schools are nevertheless set to reopen to
children in less than three weeks.
Museums across the city are reopening this week, to
limited capacity. Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo
gave clearance to a limited reopening for bowling alleys
and gyms. All of these reopenings are welcomed,
though there’s quite a bit of risk involved.
Since reopening began in June, New York City’s
COVID-19 infection rate has remained blessedly low.
Even so, nearly three months into the effort, New York
City still does not have a plan to restore indoor dining
as restaurants citywide struggle to make ends meet.
“Indoor dining, there’s not a plan right now,” de Blasio
said, incredibly, during an Aug. 21 interview with
WNYC radio’s Brian Lehrer. “There’s not a context for
indoor dining. We’re never saying it’s impossible. But
we do not, based on what we’ve seen around the world,
we do not have a plan for reopening indoor dining in
the near term.”
Eateries were permitted to remain open during the
COVID-19 crisis by offering takeout or delivery, but
that accounted for just a small fraction of business. The
introduction of outdoor dining in June aimed to help
recoup some of the losses for those that weathered the
storm.
But the clock is ticking on them, in more ways than
one.
The least of their problems is the calendar. Summer
is drawing to a close next month; cold fall air will settle
in by November, and sitting outside to eat won’t be very
feasible or pleasant.
The worst of their problems? Mounting bills from
lost weeks and months of income. More than 80 percent
of restaurants surveyed by the NYC Hospitality Alliance
said they couldn’t afford to pay their full July rent.
Federal relief that many received has run out, or is
nearly exhausted, and there’s little hope for additional
aid from Washington.
We find it hard to believe that indoor restaurants —
with strict capacity restrictions, social distancing measures
and hygienic standards in place — would be any
more dangerous to reopen than gyms, bowling alleys,
museums and schools.
We can’t reopen eateries as they were pre-pandemic,
but we can’t keep them closed. There’s no excuse for de
Blasio or Cuomo not to find a path forward for indoor
dining in New York City.
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Outdoor dining has seen some success, but as summer winds down, Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo must
work together to implement a plan to bring indoor dining back to New York City. Photo by Dean Moses
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