When Should Minnesota Bars and Restaurants Reopen?
A petition was started by an Idaho bar owner asking their governor to reopen businesses immediately. While it's not local, it raises the question here - when should bars and restaurants reopen? Not to mention, regardless of where it started, I've been seeing several local bar owners, servers, and more sharing the petition, solidifying their opinion of reopening businesses as soon as possible. The Idaho bar owner makes a stellar point about opening restaurants and bars:
I feel bars and restaurants can remove tables to comply with the distancing, and can only allow for a certain amount of people in at a time, limit hours of business, and having the sanitation in check better than what the grocery stores are doing. - Kris Miner, Move On Petition
Do you agree? Would you go to a restaurant if the tables were spread out and/or the servers wore masks?
According to the Pioneer Press, a news conference was held at the Capitol on Monday featuring business owners who say they are ready to reopen. Among them were owners of restaurants, bars, a live theater, and a salon. Sen. Eric Pratt strongly backed these business owners, saying "we owe it to these entrepreneurs to show us how they can safely and slowly reopen, and work with them to get it right.” Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. Governor Walz stood by his decision to keep the businesses closed. He says he wants to reopen everything, but he didn't give them a real timetable of when that will actually happen.