Let's go out to eat tonight

  

 

Queens Chronicle

Patricia Robinson’s husband worked in Giordi’s Joint, a bar on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, for 30 years before they bought the business in 2018.

“It’s been a rough winter, but we’re thrilled that we’re going to be reopening Friday,” she told the Chronicle.

New York City restaurants will be able to open indoor dining at 25 percent capacity on Friday rather than waiting until Valentine’s Day on Sunday, as Cuomo had initially announced. Cuomo, who last week hinted at the move based on any progress against Covid-19 over the weekend, made it official in his Monday morning press conference.

“We were planning to open the restaurants in New York City to indoor dining on Valentine’s Day, but they’ve made the point that they’d like to open a couple of days earlier so they can prepare for Valentine’s Day,” Cuomo said.

Among the numbers touted by the governor was a new seven-day positive testing rate of 4.38 percent in the state.

Queens, at 5.61 percent, has the second-highest rate in the five boroughs.

“It’s high, but it’s coming down,” he said.

Cuomo said with Valentine’s Day expected to be a busy restaurant day, the two-day head start should help eateries do a little better. But he also said things could change back if the numbers take a turn for the worse.

“The future may change that,” Cuomo said. “If the enemy changes tactics, we have to change tactics.”

Loycent Gordon, owner of the historic Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven, said the timing highlights what he calls a disconnect between Cuomo and the restaurant industry.

“He really needs to communicate more closely with the restaurant industry on ways to keep businesses viable and, of course, keep people safe,” Gordon said. “We’ve known from the start that indoor dining was not the source of the spreading. This is just one more thing we should have had already, one more frustration after a [Dec. 14] shutdown that never should have happened.”

Remember Remember the 7th of December...

 

PIX News 

 New York City school buildings will reopen under a phased schedule beginning the second week of December, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday.

Students in grades K-5, 3-K, and pre-kindergarten will return to the classroom first on Dec. 7, de Blasio said. Students in D75 schools at all grade levels will return to in-person learning on Dec. 10.

However, all schools located in orange and red microcluster zones will have to follow the state's guidance in order to reopen.

The mayor said the city will address the future of middle and high schools at a later date. For now, those students will continue with remote learning.

Students will not be allowed to return to in-person classes unless a signed COVID-19 testing consent form has been submitted by a parent or guardian, according to de Blasio. Families can fill out and submit a consent form by visiting, mystudent.nyc.

Additionally, the Department of Education is moving toward having students whose parents chose in-person learning be in the classroom five days a week. De Blasio said some schools are prepared to offer full-time in-person learning as early as Dec. 7, but other schools will need more time to ramp up.

The update comes more than a week after de Blasio announced public school buildings would temporarily close as a result of the city's seven-day coronavirus positivity rate reaching the 3% threshold he previously set.

Students pivoted to all-remote learning on Nov. 19, just days before their Thanksgiving holiday break.

As schools prepare to reopen, de Blasio said the city is taking a new approach to monitoring safety moving forward. The city will no longer use the previous citywide 3% positivity rate threshold to determine the fate of schools.

De Blasio said the 3% threshold was very stringent and purposely set at the start of the academic year amid many unanswered questions and concerns about the pandemic's affect on schools, but the city has since proven that it can keep students and staff safe despite a higher positivity rate.

"We feel confident that we can keep schools safe," he said.

 If de Blasio thought the threshold that he mandated for closings was so stringent, why re-open them with city cases at 4% and climbing?

New York City is back open

NY Post

The Big Apple will enter Phase One of reopening Monday amid the coronavirus — with retail shops set to start curbside or in-store pickup service as construction and manufacturing rev up again.

“It’s a big day for New York City,’’ Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, adding that the Apple “has met all the [health] metrics,’’ including the one involving its number of new infections, which dropped to 781 cases, or around 1 percent of those tested, Saturday — the lowest rate since March 16.

The city’s subways should be at 95 percent of their pre-pandemic service by Monday to help get people around, officials have said.  Masks are required and will be handed out to straphangers as needed, although ridership is expected to be no more than 15 percent of its usual level.
New York City is the final region in the state to go to Phase One.

In addition to retail curbside service and in-store pickups and drop-offs, construction is allowed to resume, as is manufacturing, wholesale trade and agriculture work under the state guidelines.

Retail-industry groups have predicted a trickling of city businesses starting up again Monday, as they begin to maneuver the new normal of social distancing and heightened health concerns amid the deadly pandemic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that he is still “cautious’’ about moving into Phase Two, which would allow many workers to return to their offices, restaurants and bars to offer outdoor seated service, retail shops to operate in-store business and other places such as hair salons to reopen, although at 50 percent capacity.

While Phase Two could occur as soon as two weeks from Monday, or June 22, under state guidelines, Hizzoner repeated that he wasn’t ready to commit to that date, instead saying, “Think about the beginning of July as the target.

“I want to keep expectations low on that,” he said of Phase Two.

“We are not like other regions of the state. We were the epicenter, and we remain the epicenter,” the mayor said.

Get this fucking straight; The only reason de Blasio killed his dumbass curfew is because the city is reopening tomorrow. And as this article shows, the city isn't fucking ready at all.

And get this also straight; because de Blasio's daughter got arrested protesting against the NYPD, he decided to ground the whole city for a week.