While we are certainly grateful that Gov. Philip D. Murphy has finally allowed inside dining to resume in New Jersey at 25% capacity, we cannot help but wonder how he comes to these decisions in what appears to be such a random manner.
And it’s really problematic.
Here’s why we feel this way.
First, the time frame. On Monday morning, he said restaurants may reopen for inside starting Friday, Sept. 4, 2020.
In essence, making the announcement gives restaurateurs four days to get ready.
Think about that for a moment. To get up to speed, owners basically have 96 hours to order food, prepare the interior of the establishment, decide on what kind of staff is needed — and then hope the staff would even be available.
On the surface, it seems like he makes these decisions on a whim. Wake up Monday — reopen on Friday.
These kinds of decisions require planning, discussions with medical experts, discussions with those in the restaurant industry and the bar industry.
He had to have been considering the reopening for a while — so why wait until Monday, Aug. 31, to finally decide?
We’ll say it again, we’re glad Murphy finally did make the decision to reopen restaurants and bars.
We just believe that after all they’ve gone through, a little bit more advance notice would have been better for all the aforementioned reasons.
Restaurant and bar owners have been through enough and deserved better than this.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.