You are reading

Constantinides Calls On the City to Create Indoor Dining Plan

Sept. 1, 2020 By Christian Murray

Council Member Costa Constantinides is calling on the city to come up with a plan to allow indoor dining.

The council member said Friday that if the city is able to reopen schools and gyms then there is no reason why a plan to permit indoor dining can’t be put together like the rest of the state.

The need to permit indoor dining grows greater as the winter approaches, the council member said.

“As the weather begins to cool we know our independently owned restaurant will soon take another hit when outdoor dining is no longer feasible,” Constantinides said on Friday. “So, I was incredibly upset when City Hall signaled it was giving up on these small businesses in relation to indoor dining.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo remain opposed to indoor dining, despite restaurants in Long Island and Westchester being allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity. New Jersey also gave the greenlight for restaurants to open indoors at a 25 percent capacity starting Friday.

Constantinides said the city needs to create a plan to allow New York City restaurants to operate indoors. The city’s outdoor dining program ends Oct. 31.

The plan should allow restaurants to operate but at a reduced capacity, with the city working with them to make sure the right HVAC systems are in place to filter air. In addition, he said, barriers should go up between tables for additional protection between diners.

Constantinides said that the restaurant industry is what make Astoria what it is and it needs to survive. He said that he hasn’t come to this conclusion lightly, given that he and his wife have both battled COVID-19.

“It would be defeatist to abandon them at their hour of need, when they have done so much to make this city what it is.”

De Blasio on Monday indicated that restaurants won’t be able to open their indoor space anytime soon, saying that a vaccine may be needed before that can take place.

“I do pray for and expect, a vaccine in the spring that will allow us all to get more back to normal,” he said. “We’re going to keep looking for that situation where we could push down the virus enough, where we would have more ability to address indoor dining. It would take a huge step forward to get to that point.”

The administration has long based the decision to close indoor dining on the data from other cities and countries.

“We know from the experience everywhere around the world and also from the United States that indoor dining is a very high risk activity, and there’s a reason for that,” said Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior adviser for public health last week.

“One is that you can’t wear a mask while eating,” Varma said, as well as “the duration of time…and your proximity to other people.”

 

email the author: news@queenspost.com
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

Repeat hate crime offender charged in anti-Muslim subway attack in Forest Hills: DA

A Southeast Queens man is being held without bail after he was criminally charged with assault in the first degree as a hate crime and other charges for allegedly punching and kicking a Muslim woman on an E train in Forest Hills during the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 18.

Naved Durrni, 34, of 106th Avenue in Jamaica, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday and additionally charged with aggravated harassment in the first and second degrees.

Hate Crimes Task Force investigating bomb threats against Mamdani: NYPD

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched a probe into multiple death threats made against Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani after his district office at 24-08 32nd St. in Astoria received four expletive-filled phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual, including a threat to blow up his car.

The calls were made from an untraceable number and labeled the mayoral candidate a “terrorist who is not welcome in New York or America” in a message phoned in on Wednesday morning.

Seven teens indicted for attempted murder in brutal Kissena Park gang attack on two girls: DA

A Queens grand jury indicted seven teenagers for attempted murder, gang assault, robbery, and other crimes for an attack on two girls inside Kissena Park in Flushing in early May.

The defendants, who are all 17 years old, were variously arraigned in Queens Supreme Court between June 4 and Wednesday in two separate 25-count indictments with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree. If convicted, they face up to 25 years in prison.

Queens Defenders founder charged with stealing nonprofit funds as second scandal unfolds

The founder of the Queens Defenders and her husband have lawyered up after they were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the non-profit organization.

Former Queens Defenders executive director Lori Zeno, 64, surrendered Wednesday at the Brooklyn federal courthouse. Zeno was arraigned on an indictment charging her and Rashad Ruhani, 55, with wire fraud conspiracy, theft, money laundering conspiracy and other crimes.