4 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Cuomo to watch with interest as indoor dining opens in NJ
BY MARK HALLUM
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Finally, New Jersey has something New
York City does not: indoor dining.
Th e Garden State announced Monday
that they would allow patrons of restaurants
SJU Soccer mourns loss of Jimmy Hanna
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e St. John’s University men’s soccer
team and the athletic department are
mourning the death of Jimmy Hanna,
a former student-athlete and long-time
supporter of the program who died aft er a
long battle with multiple illnesses.
A double alumnus of St. John’s who
earned both his undergraduate and graduate
degrees from SJU, Hanna, who was
born in Egypt and immigrated to the
United States as a teenager in 1974, was a
member of the men’s soccer team during
its early years before serving as a graduate
assistant in the athletic department. Aft er
leaving the university, Hanna remained
active serving as a founding member and
fi rst president of the Men’s Soccer Alumni
Club.
“Be it alumni games, pre or post-game
barbecues, arranging bus trips for far
away games, or just howling out encouragement
during the games, players and
parents from the 80s through the 2000s
have all come to know and love Jimmy,”
said Eddie Silva, Hanna’s long-time friend,
and former St. John’s teammate. “Jimmy
loved soccer, loved the school, loved the
program, and would oft en talk about how
proud he was of the program’s success and
winning a national championship while
showing you his Final Four ring rarely
given to program alumni.”
Hanna was also well known in the local
soccer circuit as well, serving as a longtime
coach for the Little Neck Douglaston
Youth Club before eventually serving as
the organization’s vice president and treasurer.
“When I arrived at St. John’s, one of
the fi rst people to reach out to me as
Jimmy Hanna,” said Dr. Dave Masur,
who began his coaching tenure at SJU
in 1991. “Jimmy had a love for the program
and the university that was evident
to everyone he met. His dedication to creating
a vast alumni network remains tremendously
important to our success. We
appreciated his spirit and passion and he
will be sorely missed. God bless Jimmy
and his family.”
and bars to consume indoors
at 25% capacity, prompting questions of
Governor Andrew Cuomo about similar
action for establishments on the eastern
banks of the Hudson River.
Cuomo, recently a fi rm opponent of
indoor dining until the health crisis passes
entirely said Monday that his administration
would be watching New Jersey
with interest in the possibility of maximizing
commerce in New York at the
earliest convenience without a backslide
into the more grim days of April and May
when infection rates and deaths from
COVID-19 were at their worst.
On Sunday, only one New Yorker had
died from COVID-19, another benchmark
for New York’s success at beating
back the virus.
“I’m aware that the restaurants in New
York City are very unhappy… I understand
the economic consequences, I
understand their argument will be exacerbated
when they say New Jersey can
go to 25% and it is something that we
are watching and considering. I want as
much economic activity as quickly as possible,”
Cuomo said. “By law it is a state
decision, it’s not up Queens, the Bronx,
Westchester, Nassau, it’s a state decision;
it’s not up to New York City.”
According to Cuomo, Manhattan
patrons could become the next iteration
of a bridge-and-tunnel crowd, crossing
the river for a dining experience just
minutes away in some cases. Before this,
city dwellers could go just about anywhere
in the state where indoor dining
has been authorized due to low infection
rates which has left many scratching their
heads considering the comparatively low
metrics in the fi ve boroughs.
But the decision for allowing other businesses
to open with the exclusion of restaurants
is less a matter of math and more
a matter of the heightened risk that bars in
particular pose on a general basis, according
to state health commissioner Howard
Zucker.
“Th ere is no calibration for restaurants
that’s diff erent from malls, that’s diff erent
from casinos, it’s just the locality. Th e viral
transmission rate versus the rest of increasing
activity,” Cuomo added. ” Obviously it’s
worse in New York City because you have
a higher concentration of people.”
But Cuomo’s restraint in allowing for
indoor dining in the city is also a refl ection
of what has been viewed as a lack of
compliance from businesses who allow
congregations of maskless drinkers to
crowd the streets, leading to the creation
of a special task force and sweeps
by the State Liquor Authority suspending
licenses.
In response to a question from
amNewYork Metro reporter Todd Maisel,
Mayor Bill de Blasio was skeptical that
decimated business opportunities for bar
owners would leave New Yorkers no other
options than chain establishments such as
Applebee’s.
“I don’t think in the end, we’re only
going to be going to Applebee’s. I really
don’t. I believe it’s been really, really
tough on folks who own restaurants, who
put their life into those restaurants. It has
been really tough on the people who work
for them and are trying to get their livelihoods
back. We’re working every day.
Our Health team is looking at this issue
all the time, and we’re going to be working
closely with the State on this as well,”
de Blasio said. “Is there a way where we
can do something safely with indoor dining?
So far we have not had that moment,
honestly.”
Hizzoner is still holding out hope for a
COVID-19 vaccine as early as the spring.
QNS/File
Former St. John’s soccer player Jimmy Hanna (second from r.) died after battling multiple illnesses.
QNS fi le photo
/WWW.QNS.COM
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