24 THE QUEENS COURIER • AUGUST 27, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Stop dragging feet on indoor dining
Mayor Bill de Blasio insists that public
schools are safe to reopen under the
“blended model” plan. Th ough disagreements
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.
THE QUEENS
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
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PRESIDENT & CEO
VICE PRESIDENT
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
JACOB KAYE
ANGELICA ACEVEDO, JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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Photo by Dean Moses
Story: Hotels required to have guests fi ll out twoweek
travel quarantine form: Mayor
Summary: Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive
order on Aug. 18 requiring that all hotels and shortterm
rentals have guests arriving from states with
high numbers of coronavirus cases sign a two-week
quarantine form before giving them access to
rooms.
Reach: 3,714
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 eff ort, 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. “Th ere’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 off ering
takeout or delivery, but that accounted
for just a small fraction of business. Th e
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.
Th e 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.
Th e 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 aff ord 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 fi nd 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. Th ere’s no excuse for de Blasio
or Cuomo not to fi nd a path forward for
indoor dining in New York City.
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