Restaurants need every kind of support

The Mill Valley City Council’s call on Gov. Gavin Newsom and Marin County public health officials to reopen outdoor dining comes as no surprise.

The council is reflecting concerns and questions raised by local restaurants about the restoration of tougher restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Those questions are founded in an absence of scientific proof that outdoor dining poses a threat in the spread of the deadly virus.

Officials need to provide greater clarity regarding the risk they see, explaining why outdoor dining is apparently less safe than, for example, going inside a restaurant for a takeout order.

The council, in the letters, voiced concern about the financial hardship the state and county orders have put on local restaurant workers and owners.

“Our local restaurant employees are facing tremendous financial strain, experiencing layoffs, reduced hours and struggling to provide for their families,” the letters state.

For many restaurants and their workers, recent months have been a costly rollercoaster. Restaurants invested thousands of dollars enabling them to provide outdoor dining within strict public health constraints only to have it banned again over the last month as the spread of the deadly virus spiked.

Many restaurants will not be able to financially weather the latest orders. They — and the jobs they provide — can’t survive on takeout alone.

The restaurant industry is an important part of Marin’s economy.

Mill Valley Councilman Urban Carmel stressed that the council does not want to put restaurant workers or diners at risk. But the public deserves to see evidence that there is such a great risk that outdoor dining should be banned.

Such evidence would also help increase compliance.

“We did research … there wasn’t any good evidence,” Carmel said. “In fact, there was evidence to the contrary — that it was safer than, for example, retail, which is open.”

From a safety standpoint, what are the differences in risks from outdoor dining and shopping inside a store?

Is there evidence that traces outdoor dining to increases in COVID-19 cases?

Over the past 10 months of restrictions, few questions have been publicly raised by local officials.

Mill Valley’s question underscores the lack of public dialogue and decision-making when it has come to these longheld restrictions.

Given the movement of people between jurisdictions, it has made sense that these measures have been based on regions, rather than town by town.

And given the crisis, there is little time or good reason for such orders being the result of lengthy public debates.

But the public deserves to know the medical basis on which these orders are based.

What are the increased risks of outdoor dining to customers and workers?

Mill Valley’s letter may not bring back outdoor dining, but it deserves a public response from local and state public health officials that provides scientific support for their orders.