'The final nail in the coffin for NYC restaurants': Indoor dining will STOP on Monday despite it causing less than 1.34% of new COVID cases
Governor Cuomo has announced that indoor dining in New York City will end on Monday, despite it being to blame for less than 1.34 percent of the new COVID cases in New York State, in what restaurant owners say is the final nail in the coffin for an industry that is hanging by a thread.
The decision serves as a death warrant for many small, independently owned restaurants which have struggled to stay afloat in New York City through months of closures, punitive restrictions and with no stimulus money since April.
Cuomo said on Friday that he isn't opposed to giving out state relief but that he was going to wait and see if the federal government provide stimulus first.
It does nothing to help bar and restaurant owners who now have only two ways to make money; they can have people eat outdoors or operate deliveries and take-out.
But with temperatures plunging to below freezing, a snowstorm due next week and with many more months of winter ahead, diner numbers are dwindling.
Restaurant owners told DailyMail.com on Friday that they would not have to lay off their staff - who they'd hoped to keep on through the holiday period - in light of Cuomo's decision which they called 'inexplicable' and 'a disgrace'.
They said Cuomo's decision would do nothing to stop the spread and would only send more people into private gatherings, which accounts for a whopping 74 percent, while delivering a fatal blow to them.
The infection rate in New York City is 4 percent - much lower than in other parts of the state - and it varies drastically by borough. Manhattan's infection rate is lower than six percent but Staten Island's is nearly double and a quarter of all of the statewide deaths (26 out of 96) on Thursday were there.
Despite the gross disparity, Cuomo said indoor dining on Monday would end for at least two weeks across the entire city until hospitalizatons in NYC slow down.
'Look at the top of the list ... focus on the household, social gathering spread. We are and we are doing everything we can. It’s limited what we can do,' he said, adding that he can't crack down on what people do in their own homes.
The rate of transmission has risen to 1:3 which he says is a problem specifically in New York City because the population is bigger than anywhere else.
Restaurants in New York City will only be allowed to offer outdoor dining starting from Monday. Gov. Cuomo announced today. It only returned to the city at the end of September
This is where the new COVID cases are coming from across the state. Restaurants and bars are fourth on the list but at-home gatherings are the clear culprit. Shutting indoor dining will send many more people into private gatherings where the spread can't be controlled
New York City's hospitalizations are rising but it still is nowhere near where it was in the spring. There are still thousands of hospital beds free
But it has some of the lowest numbers in the state for test positivity.
There are still more than 3,000 hospital beds available across the city. Right now, there are 1,600 hospitalized with COVID across the city. At the virus peak, there were 12,000 hospitalized with it. The city has 23,000 hospital beds available in total.
The decision has sickened restaurant owners who say they now have no choice but to lay off staff.
Many had been hoping to continue operating on a 25 percent indoor dining capacity until January or February, when the vaccine will be rolled out widely, and that they might just be able to cling on in that case.
Now, they say it's an 'impossibility'.
Robert Mahon, who owns a group of restaurants including Toro Loco and Broadstone, called it a 'disgrace'.
'There is no scientific data in this decision making whatsoever,' he said.
He asked why Albany - where the infection rate is higher than 7 percent - can continue running indoor dining when Manhattan - where it's less than 3 percent - can't.
Ash Deshmukh of Short Stories told DailyMail.com after Cuomo's announcement on Friday: 'We can't survive on outdoor and take out alone.
'This will be a 70 percent hit to revenue that was only just starting to build.
'We have no relief from fixed costs and now no ability now to earn to pay them off.'
He said that they were equally concerned about rising COVID cases both for the sake of staff safety and customer safety, but that the decision put the industry 'in a bad place'.
Eddie Fraunces, who owns Fraunces Tavern and Lovelace Gin and Cocktail bar, said he'll now have to lay off half of his remaining staff as a result of the decision.
'For us, we've made an adjustment to go online and sell merchandise.
'We're going to try to remain open as much as possible but we're going to have to lay off 50 percent of our staff.
'I was procrastinating that until after Christmas.
'In March, we had over our two restaurants, 100 staff. Now, we have 45. That's going to go down to about 20,' he said.
He echoed that the decision made no sense given Manhattan's low rates.
'The reason they gave in the beginning was that it was due to population density but if that was the case our infection rate would be much higher.
In Manhattan it's 2.3 percent but on Long Island and in Westchester it's higher, yet they are allowed to continue at a 25 percent capacity? It makes no sense.
'All the restaurants wanted to do was struggle through until the vaccine and we would have survived but now, at least 50 percent will have to close, especially with no PPP coming.I know a lot of my friends are saying that this is the nail in the coffin.
'If we received PPP from the federal government, I wouldn't have to be going to my staff today and laying them off.
'We could keep them going until we got through the pandemic. This though is going to be insane. The number of people who will be applying for unemployment today... it's going to be huge,' he said.
The cover of New York Magazine on December 4 is dedicated to the hundreds of businesses - many of them restaurants - that have had to close
He added that he felt a responsibility to tell staff now that they'd lost their jobs rather than drag it out because unemployment checks took so long to go out in April.
'Last time, they had to wait 2 months or so.
'It'd be unfair of us to hold on to and lay them off next week when they could be stuck for months with no money,' he said.
Ronan Downs, who owns eight businesses predominantly on Stone Street in downtown Manhattan, said he was weighing whether or not to now close all of his businesses temporarily.
'We'll probably have to let all (200 of) the staff go - that's a particularly daunting task given that Christmas is around the corner.
'Lives are at stake here. We've got all these employees with kids and it's Christmas time, you know, Santa time.
'Most restaurateurs don't have the money themselves to shell out to them - we're broke too,' he said.
'All the places will be in jeopardy because of the time of year.
'When this happened first, the weather was a little better.
'We are toying with the idea of some tents but we've got so few people we can service outside.. you've got to fire up the kitchen, have a server, gas and electric..there's a liability involved.
Restaurants in New York City were only allowed to start welcoming diners back indoors at the end of September
'It's going to be hard to make to work.
'We need a stimulus package to keep us going, it's an impossibility.
'The fabric of New York City, the greatest city on this earth, the energy of it comes from its social scene.
'When we see big corporations leaving to move to other cities, all that will happen quicker now if we don't keep the restaurants open,' he said.
He added it seemed like a political decision to close the restaurants now when the test positivity rate in Manhattan, especially, is as low as it is.
'The figures are not huge, they are quite low. It's a surprising decision. I do understand why you don't want full occupancy but 25 percent - and it's being monitored so well, it's surprising,' he said.
He added that it made no sense to close restaurants' indoor dining because it will drive more and more people into private gatherings where they won't be monitored and which is by far and away the largest source of spread currently.
'Human nature doesn't change. We are social creatures. We'll be engaging in social interaction but it won't be monitored.
'What is particularly awful is that we monitor people's interactions in the restaurant better than they would in their own home.
'It's very difficult to tell somebody in their home to put their mask on or wash hands but we have all those guidelines in place and we're not shy about telling people they have a responsibility to the other patrons and their family members.'
Customers also questioned the logic of Cuomo's decision.
Cuomo justified it by saying he couldn't crack down on people's behavior in their homes - this was all he could control.
The closure will start for two weeks at which point, he'll reassess, he said. He has not told restaurants what time they have to close indoor dining on Monday.
Statewide, hospitalizations are rising at a far greater rate than they are in New York City
Long Island has fewer hospital beds available than New York City does but it is allowed to continue indoor dining
In Western New York, hospitalizations are going through the roof but only some parts of the area have closed indoor dining
Staten Island has by far the worst problem of anywhere in the city - 25 percent of the statewide deaths on Thursday were there despite it accounting for just five percent of the population.
Cuomo offered few words of sympathy or encouragement on Friday for the industry. In fact, he said he'd 'compensated' by allowing them to do outdoor dining.
He also said he would wait to see what the federal government offers the industry in terms of help before he asks the state legislature for any type of relief for the industry.
'New York City is already only at 25 percent. We have compensated in many ways but outdoor dining has been aggressively expanded.
'Restaurants have really adapted - the takeout is an entirely different business line. Yes there'll be an economic hardship but we have compensated in other ways.
'This is a situation that has affected every business community and we're all doing what we can... we're asking everyone to hold on.
'The end is in sight but we have to hold on. I understand the hardship. I suffer every last dollar with these businesses. They have a deficit, we have a deficit.
'Every dollar a business loses, we lose a percentage of that dollar. When you’re doing the calibration of the economic activity, you look at the risk level …It’s not forever,' he said.
He added he'd extend the state moratorium on evictions which prevents anyone from being evicted, commercial or residential, for failing to pay rent but would not promise any kind of financial help.
'I believe the federal government should include subsidies for bars and restaurants in their relief package.
'If we are in a situation in this state to provide business relief and we have any funds and resources that would allow us to do that I would be 100 percent supportive of it and I've advocated for it.
'We have to find it from a state point of view the situation we're in after the federal government decides the package of statewide relief that they are doing, state and local,' he said.
'I believe the federal government should include subsidies for bars and restaurants. If we're in a situation to provide relief, we'll have to wait and see.
'We have to stand out the situation in after the federal government decides the package they're doing,' he said.
Manhattan, where most restaurants are, has had consistently lower infection rate than any other borough but the entire city will be subject to the indoor dining ban. Cuomo had promised to make any closures local.
Less than two weeks ago, he said it 'didn't sense' to close a restaurant 'in Brooklyn if Queens had a problem'.
Manhattan's test positivity rate is only 2.3 percent. Staten Island's is 4.7 percent. Brooklyn is 3.8 percent. Queens is 4.5 percent. In the Bronx, it's 5 percent.
Hospitalizations are rising at a faster rate in other regions, including Long Island, but New York City is the only place that has to close indoor service on Monday.
There's been little sympathy from either de Blasio or Cuomo for restaurant owners, nor has there been any additional stimulus.
On Friday, de Blasio had few words of comfort for the industry.
'I feel for them, but sometimes you have to say look, at least if you take action now, you can prevent something worse from happening.
'I feel for them, but I know in my heart we have to stop the spread of this virus quickly to turn this situation around,' he said.
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