Prospect Park bar plans protest of Pa. lockdown
PROSPECT PARK » Joe Magee is hosting a “Reopen PA” rally from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of Marty Magee’s Irish Pub at 1100 Lincoln Ave. All are welcome, and he asks that those attending wear a mask.
Magee, who opened the restaurant bar in 2006, would like to have a discussion with Gov. Tom Wolf about a meaningful way to reopen all of Pennsylvania, including the southeast - even if that means it has to close again in a few weeks.
“You need to have businesses to open,” he said. “We need to get a concrete plan together now ... Myself and others would gladly spend a few days in Harrisburg and come up with a sensible plan for reopening.”
He and others, like Dave Magrogan, founder and CEO of Harvest Seasonal Grill and Wine Bar, will speak at the rally, sharing their ideas and their confusion over the discrepancies they see in how businesses are afforded different standards.
Magrogan called it “hypocrisy.”
“Small, mostly owner/operator businesses in your neighborhood operated by experts in their field are considered a health risk, versus a Target, Wegmans, Giant, Home Depot that employs people with no vested interested in the success and safety of the company that employs them,” he said. “Would the owner of a small barber shop taking care of 15 customers a day put less care into cleaning his shop, disinfecting his equipment and spacing out appointments versus a cashier at a grocery store processing dozens of customers per hour? Which person would take the health of their customer more seriously?”
Magee has a six-prong approach to reopening, a process he himself says should be graduated.
First, he said, the data related to nursing homes and congregate care facilities should be removed from formulas that determine counties’ opening status. With the bulk of positive cases and deaths attributed to these facilities, Magee said that has “little to no common relationship” in determining risk for opening small retail businesses like salons, flower stores or bar/restaurants.
Secondly, he said the state should define a clear data driven formula for moving through the reopening process.
Coupled with that, he said the state should define a clear metric for measuring progress, as he said many are asking, “How close are we to reopening?”
“We should define a single metric, score or other way communicating where we stand with regards to businesses opening per county,” he said, adding that it should be clearly defined on the Pennsylvania Department of Health website.
Fourth, he said, businesses should open to the yellow phase, with all of the standards that phase would contain.
“Bars and restaurants and small businesses need to open and we need to open ASAP,” Magee said. “The minimum viable capacity restriction should be 60 percent for the yellow phase. This would allow businesses to operate profitably while imposing social distancing measures and following CDC/PA DOH guidelines.”
Fifthly, Magee said, businesses have to be open to closing again.
“While increased social interaction will have an increased likelihood of case counts going up, we will also have a natural increase in infection rates and deaths as temperatures drop and we enter our flu season. This makes it more important than ever to open now. We need to allow people to develop immunity through social interaction ... in a slow and managed way.”
He himself said he’d prefer to reopen, even if that meant just for a little bit.
“I’d rather open up for 14 days, 10 days, five days, whatever it is, then hit the brake,” Magee said. “That is OK. That puts some money in people’s pockets.”
Plus, he added, “It’s a good gauge in how we’re doing.”
Finally, Magee said sensible precautions need to be defined for small bars and restaurants. That includes social distancing, universal masking, with eating and drinking considerations, table/ chair spacing, continual sanitization, use of plastics and throw away utensils and logging of safety procedures.
He said he’d require temperature-taking and masking for all of his 33 employees.
“I care more about my staff and my regulars,” Magee said. “We’re in the business of relationships, of making sure people are safe and they are being healthy. Health and happiness, that’s the business we’re in ... We are not going to open our business to make money without putting people’s safety first.”
So, he’s holding the rally to raise awareness so that small business owners in this region of the state can have conversation with the governor.
“I think the time is now, the time is now to make decisions to put a plan in place to open our state,” Magee said.
He said he recognizes that small businesses make up 50 percent of the jobs in Pennsylvania. “We have to acknowledge the numbers that they are looking at ... you have to look at what they are,” Magee said, adding that equity must also be considered. “Balloon Tycoon is not going to be open in Glenolden but Walmart is selling balloons.”
And, he said small business owners have a more vested interest in safety. “Small business owners can sensibly protect our customers better than anybody,” he said.
So, he’s hired a D.J. for Thursday, there will be some speakers.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Magee said. “We hope the governor hears this. I’m going to make sure everybody stays safe. Wear a mask - I’ll have them.”