You are reading

Indoor Dining in New York City Postponed Indefinitely

July 1, 2020 By Allie Griffin

New Yorkers will have to wait a little longer to grab a bite to eat indoors.

The reopening of indoor dining at New York City restaurants has been postponed indefinitely, both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today.

New York City was poised to reopen indoor dining on July 6, as part of Phase III of the governor’s reopening plan. However, an uptick of COVID-19 cases in states that have already reopened indoor dining have caused the officials to change tack.

“Phase III dining — we are going to postpone,” Cuomo said during a press conference in New York City. “It’s going to be postponed until the facts change and it is prudent to open.”

Mayor de Blasio also worried about indoor transmission. Research appears to show, he said, that the public is more susceptible to contracting the virus indoors.

“It is not the time to forge ahead with indoor dining,” de Blasio said.

Other states that have already reopened restaurants and bars are now seeing skyrocketing cases of COVID-19, he added.

New York has issued a travel advisory for these states. It’s requiring travelers from 16 states, where the rate of infection is particularly high, to quarantine for 14 days when entering the Empire State.

Cuomo said he is also worried about New Yorkers not following social distancing rules and failing to wear masks.

“Look at any street in Manhattan, go to the East Village, go to the West Side, go to Brooklyn, go to Queens, go to The Bronx,” Cuomo said. “Citizen compliance is slipping.”

He blamed it on a lack of enforcement — though he did not call out New York City officials by name.

“If you have citizen compliance dropping and you don’t have local governments enforcing, then you’re going to see the virus go up,” Cuomo said.

“The local governments have to do their job.”

The governor said the decision to postpone is preemptive to avoid an increase of new coronavirus cases. New York City’s numbers have continued to remain at safe levels.

“We went from worst infection rate in the United States to best infection rate in the United States,” Cuomo said of New York State.

 

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Met Council leader warns of ‘catastrophe’ for low-income families in Queens due to lack of pandemic-era federal food aid

Mar. 28, 2023 By Bill Parry

As an accomplished legislator, law professor and media personality with broad experience in government and not-for-profit organizations, Met Council CEO and executive director David Greenfield is well aware of the power of words. With Passover arriving on Wednesday, April 5, and with federal pandemic food assistance no longer available to low-income families in Queens, the leader of the nation’s largest Jewish charity organization warned of a coming “catastrophe” and called for the city to step up to provide $13 million in emergency funding for pantries to help New Yorkers facing food insecurity and elevated costs of living in the borough.

Pair of Queens community organizations will activate public spaces to celebrate local cultures

Two Queens community organizations are among an inaugural cohort of five groups citywide that will lead new projects to celebrate local cultures and histories in public spaces under a new initiative called The Local Center in a partnership between Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD).

At a time when New York is grappling with an uneven pandemic recovery and as displacement looms large for communities and neighborhoods across the five boroughs, this new endeavor will convene interdisciplinary teams to transform and activate the shared spaces where cultural traditions flourish — and importantly, center the community visions and leadership that is too often left out of the process.