So restaurants can open Friday night at half capacity, but not bars. What about breweries? There’s way more space at some breweries than most restaurants… Still excited to be able to go to a restaurant again. I’ll still wear a mask as much as I can, and probably will wait a little to see how places are doing with reopening. I saw High Horse and Gravy and others are waiting to reopen, to train new staff and all the associated issues with reopening.
I can’t say how disappointed I am in this move. This is absolutely crippling for companies that have done everything they’ve been asked, prepped for opening on Friday, put in measures to make things safe, and still are being told they are shut down. (particularly bars and gyms) By the way, I have been supportive of Cooper during this whole thing (and I voted for him), but this is a LARGE misstep.
And I know this is off-topic, but playgrounds are still closed while pools are open? And on the eve of the CDC announcing the virus doesn’t readily spread via surfaces? Can anyone explain this one honestly?
Heartbreaking for them, and not their fault. But it’s simply not safe. None of Phase 2 is safe, tbh. Another total shutdown is inevitable. At least the people who work in bars and movie theaters and other businesses that aren’t being allowed to reopen won’t be put at risk the way employees at these other establishments are going to be.
People need to have their income guaranteed until it’s safe, not be asked to weigh their safety and the safety of their loved ones against earning a paycheck and keeping their health insurance. The choice itself is immoral and easily rectified by establishing a common sense and moral social safety net in a time of crisis.
The point of the shutdown was to flatten the curve. Industries can’t wait until there is no Covid before reopening. The very essential hospital system could barely survive a repeat of April. It’s very likely many of those in the movie theatre industry won’t have anything on the other side of this. We need to be smart about this, but we have to be realistic. A government with half a tax base can’t underwrite the incomes for everyone. It’s not feasible, it’s not desirable.
There is no difference between “smart” and “realistic.” This is a crisis. And it’s a tragedy. The economic needs of particular businesses does not, unfortunately, lower the risks. There is simply no safe way to go sit in a movie theater for a few hours. There is no safe way to go to a bar.
I wish there were. Those are two of my favorite activities. But frankly these things are not safe because people have not heeded warnings to a sufficient degree and because government has not been strong enough to enforce best practices. Testing has similarly been woefully inadequate to enact the kind of test and trace program that would instill real consumer confidence.
Businesses are paying the price for all of these failures, and it’s horrible. But it does not change the reality. There are only two options here, and both are enormously expensive. In one scenario, the government pays people’s wages until the crisis subsides. In the other, thousands and thousands die who would not otherwise.
Europe has had a wide range of hodgepodge lockdowns and social distancing and all done at differing stages. The country with the fewest cases was the one that closed down before there were any cases (Greece). Most other results were mixed and didn’t easily correspond to the stringency of the shutdown. Across the continent, nursing homes was the main driver of the death rate, not Tesco.
Things will change undoubtedly. We can’t have it the way it was before. But that’s not the same as saying we can’t have it at all until there is a vaccine. Mass gatherings should be stopped for now, but everything else should be up for discussion. It’s the only sane thing we can do.
No, the sane thing we can do is to increase test and trace programs to the point where people can have actual confidence in going out and being among people.
Until you have that, the only sane thing to do is to maintain strict lockdowns and enact guaranteed income programs.
People want to make this hard, but it isn’t. It’s not safe. If you want to make it safe, enact the necessary programs (test and trace) to make it safe.
Well obviously we can’t have a strict lockdown because the American people simply would not stand for it for as long as it would take to wait for a vaccine. The entire economy would be in shambles and there is death and devastation in a great depression. A path between the extremes of forced lockdowns and completely open with no mitigation needs to be traveled.
Test and trace works if you catch it early. It hit New York City far too early in the pandemic cycle for us to have pulled a South Korea. Playing catch-up on testing is a fool’s errand, where you might reach an imaginary testing goal around the same time the herd immunity kicks in. Guaranteed income indefinitely while you wait for Covid to go the way of smallpox or SARs or what have you makes no sense. Even if you could afford it, the long term impact to society would be horrific. And again, see Sweden.
I may have gotten us off topic with my question to Joe. I think the point I’m driving at is that the FACTS of the situation is that like it or not, Cooper is opening up.
So we can rant and rave about second waves and UI all we want. The state is open for all intensive puposes. My problem is that I find it very unfair that restaurants are open for business while bars are not. This may very well be the end of some of these smaller bars (especially the dive bars) if he doesn’t reconsider. Why can I go sit and have breakfast at Mecca, but I can’t go to Person St Bar for a beer? It makes no sense. Put in some restrictions and give these people a fighting chance to let their companies survive.
I’m not ready to go back and have a beer yet. I have a pregnant wife. I also won’t be dining out inside, yet. But that’s not the point. The point is that if you are going to allow restaurants to open with guidelines , bars should be able to as well. I feel awful for for some of these places and I think Cooper made a mistake there. That was my initial point. Argue it
Here is your answer for breweries. Which just gets right to my previous point. If you’re opening, do it fairly. Don’t pick and choose which businesses live and die. Trophy Maywood is no more dangerous than Trophy Morgan.
Yeah - seems like a lot of restaurants have bars, and most bars serve food. Where do you draw the line?
I don’t have answers. I do know I will not be going to either for some time. I will continue to do take out like we have been about 1x per week to support businesses.
It’s interesting that we are the only southern state attempting to follow the White House guidelines on reopening safely and yet we’re being blasted by the White House for opening too slowly. And, in all fairness, we haven’t actually met the WH criteria yet so you could complain that we’re opeining to fast.
Funny enough, Trophy isn’t opening any of their locations yet. What is interesting is that a number of breweries make food and count as restaurants, but others with tons of space like Raleigh Brewing and Bond Bros unfortunately can’t open. I’d be surprised if breweries really end up having to wait until the end of June, tho. There’s some discussions underway already and this may be revised. I also see a number of restaurants not opening at least this weekend to take time to get set up properly and to avoid an initial rush. No one wants their business to be in the news in 2 weeks as the epicenter of dozens of new cases.
I am concerned about a huge second wave in the coming weeks that shuts everything back down, for 2 reasons. 1, the people who aren’t wearing masks or social distancing now and think the government is oppressing them are going to run full force back to normal life at every public place with little regard for the new rules, and 2, people with the best intentions (including staff) are still going to mess up… The servers who wear gloves like they’re magic, people who pull masks under their noses, etc.
I’m not saying we should shut everything down until there’s a vaccine. I’m just saying I am worried for another wave that kills all the businesses that have been hanging on.
