Latest state virus orders bring new uncertainty, scrambling
They figured the rules were coming. The question was when.
Now that Gov. Tom Wolf has introduced new restrictions meant to tame the COVID-19 surge, hardhit small businesses are confronting another round of uncertainty — including whether they can avert job cuts — as community groups rally to help and families adapt to another game change.
While they maneuver logistics,
entrepreneurs are asking why the Wolf administration didn’t give more lead time before the latest regulations took effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Business owners described a last-minute scramble to prevent food waste, rearrange staff schedules and avoid inconveniencing customers.
The administration announced the short-term rules, including a ban on indoor restaurant dining and firm limits on indoor entertainment and gatherings, just after 4 p.m. Thursday. The restrictions are scheduled to remain in place for three weeks, until 8 a.m. Jan. 4.
“When we get these cancellations on such short notice, it’s very difficult, because investments of time and money have been made. Sometimes, we lose out. That really hurts our business,” said Linda Nyman, a co-owner of Penn Brewery on the North Side, on Friday.
“You hate to buy a week or two weeks’ worth of food inventory, only to be told you have to shut your doors,” she added. “Particularly with perishable products — especially in times when so many people are struggling to put food on the table — that’s just terrible.”
The brewery, bar and restaurant halted in-person dining but is offering takeout under the state regulations, Ms. Nyman said. She hopes to avoid staff cuts at the business, which relies in part on selling beer to establishments that face the same limits from Harrisburg, she said.
Reached Friday, Wolf spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger called it critical that the “time-limited mitigation measures begin as soon as possible,” citing COVID-19’s spread across the state.
More than 5,800 people in Pennsylvania were hospitalized last week with the disease, which has killed more than 12,436 statewide, according to the state Department of Health. Daily case counts have reached new highs repeatedly this month, topping out at 11,084 on Saturday amid worries over the state’s health care capacity.
“It’s not the fault of restaurant and bar owners or their employees that COVID-19 spreads easily in these conditions — it’s the nature of the disease,” Ms. Kensinger said in a statement. Mr. Wolf has urged Congress to direct pandemic relief funding to the state’s bars and restaurants, she said.
She encouraged Pennsylvanians to keep supporting local business by buying takeout food, takeout alcohol and gift cards. Pittsburgharea food and beverage establishments employed about 57,000 people in October, down 35% compared with a year prior, according to the Center for Social & Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh.
At the Crack’d Egg in Brentwood, owner Kim Waigand pledged to stay open for indoor dining despite the state orders. Allegheny County tried earlier to shut down her restaurant over reported violations of state’s COVID-19 mitigation rules.
“They divide us — the government — and they shame us for being ‘selfish,’ ” Ms. Waigand said. “I’m not closing here because I have staff who depend on their paychecks to support themselves and their family. Their unemployment [compensation] is gone. And how long do you have to wait for it? And we’re two or three weeks before Christmas? No. I’m not doing it.”
Taking it outside
Pittsburghers and tourists seized on Saturday’s 60degree weather to dine al fresco Downtown, where they gathered at Market Square restaurants like Primanti Brothers and City Works that put tables outside.
“Let people make decisions for themselves,” said Andrew Woods, of York, visiting the city with his wife, Lori, for a getaway weekend. “Two weeks to slow the curve has become a ninemonth lockdown.”
Over in the Strip District, streets bustled with diners and shoppers. Outside Kaya, a Caribbean-inspired restaurant, people ate at outdoor tables beneath an overhang. At Penn Avenue Fish Market, owner Henry Dewey said, “We’re actually doing pretty good.”
Now that restaurants can’t host indoor dining, more people are buying fish there to cook at home, he said.
“It was a stroke of luck for us,” Mr. Dewey said.
Pandemic business has been good, too, for pizza shops and beer distributors, he said. Still, his business partner, Angela Earley, said kitchen employees are worried about losing work hours and income during the usually busy — and profitable — holiday period.
For Union Fitness, a North Side gym, the new state rules mean alternative measures: loaning equipment to members, moving in-house equipment for outdoor use and leaning on online workout sessions.
Regulars who kept their memberships amid the pandemic have helped Union Fitness retain workers, none of whom is expected to be cut because of the new state rules, assistant manager C.J. Jasper said. The state has required
fitness facilities to suspend indoor operations until Jan. 4.
“From a scientific [standpoint], I have to trust the experts and believe if this is what they need to get everything under control, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said.
Remembering March
Some wondered whether the rules will extend beyond Jan. 4, recalling the state’s prolonged closures early in the pandemic. At the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, staff endured “a tremendous burden” when the facilities closed for 15 weeks following a shutdown order in March, museums President Steven Knapp said.
All but 150 of his employees who were furloughed at the time have returned to work, he said. Although museums, casinos and movie theaters are among the organizations required to close again, the museums have no plans for furloughs, Mr. Knapp said.
“This couldn’t have come at a worse time,” he said, noting the holiday season is typically the busiest time of year for the venues.
Other high-profile closures include the Peoples Gas Holiday Market in Market Square, which shuttered
Friday evening for the season. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership said it would have been impossible to welcome people safely under new rules for outdoor gatherings, limited now to 50 people.
Indoor gatherings are generally capped at 10 people, excluding places of worship.
“Now it is more important than ever to support Downtown’s small businesses, visit their web and social platforms to find ways to shop online, order takeout or visit our expanded outdoor dining spaces,” partnership CEO Jeremy Waldrup said in a statement.
Mechanisms to help
Community support campaigns swung into action last week, with groups including the Downtown partnership and the Butler County Convention & Tourism Bureau announcing efforts to help hospitality workers.
The partnership joined with the nonprofit 412 Food Rescue in a second round of Community Takeout, a program that will pay workers at participating Downtown restaurantsto prepare meals for people in need. The Richard King Mellon Foundation is supporting the work, which will help restaurants prepare 1,225 meals a week through May, according to the organizations.
People can use the 412 Food Rescue app to become delivery volunteers.
In Butler County, the tourism bureau is collaborating to raise money for displaced hospitality workers. Details are available through www.visitbutlercounty.
“They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our relatives. That’s who we’re helping,” said Jack Cohen, president of the tourism bureau.
A former restaurateur, Mr. Cohen said he hopes the campaign will raise enough to give each displaced worker a check or card worth more than $100.
‘Notorious about the cleaning’
For others, last week brought one more chance to indulge before the rules took hold. At Live! Casino, attached to the Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg, dozens showed up for a final gamble before the casino closed down barely more than two weeks after its grand opening.
Even long-established destinations like the Parkwood Inn in Greensburg are seeing regular customers disappear.
And “we were very, very, very notorious about the cleaning,” said Liz Shodi, a Parkwood manager who’s worked at the restaurant for 14 years.
She wonders how businesses that aren’t so diligent can stay open when Parkwood continues to suffer, she said Friday.
“I’ve never, ever seen it like this on the snowiest day of the year [or] the hottest day in the summer,” Ms. Shodi said, looking around the empty dining room.