We can do this, Chicago — a safe and cautious reopening
Chicago is tentatively back in business, and we’re happy for that, though we keep looking over our shoulder for another surge of the coronavirus.
We’re ready for a reemergence, even as the city reels from the violence that accompanied several days of otherwise law-abiding demonstrations after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Reopening Chicago and Illinois was always going to be difficult and dicey, requiring caution and adherence to strict rules. Now, given the destruction caused by looters, it will be tougher. Scores of businesses, especially on the South and West sides, were heavily damaged and won’t reopen for quite some time, if ever.
And yet, the city this week reached Phase 3 of its coronavirus reopening plan, a sort of theatrical opening night. Let’s do our best to make sure the reviews are good.
We look forward to restaurant dining again, in the open air. What a staple of a Chicago summer.
We look forward to getting a trim at the hairdresser or barbershop. Some of us are tired of looking like sheepdogs.
We look forward to stopping at a neighborhood store to buy sandals. And we look forward to walking in those sandals to the library, to Navy Pier, to neighborhood parks.
We look forward to all the small pleasures that make big-city life so great.
“I’m going all out today, liquor and caffeine,” Caryn Garaygay, who was sipping both a mimosa and a latte at an Andersonville breakfast spot, said to us Wednesday. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.”
Doing our part
The trick will be to follow the rules.
Chicago’s reopening must continue to be carried out cautiously, guided by the public health experts. Let’s keep it up with wearing masks and maintaining social distance.
Actually, let’s get better at that. We’ve been too cavalier.
And as Chicago reopens, let’s take extra care not to leave a single neighborhood behind.
It’s heartbreaking now to see the still-shuttered restaurants, bustedout storefronts and ransacked businesses caused by looters who apparently never tried to build something themselves. It is especially heartbreaking that so much of that damage was done in African American and Latino communities that already had been hardest hit by COVID-19.
Yet it was the business and restaurant owners on the South and West Side, in neighborhoods like Bronzeville, Chatham and Austin, who urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week not to delay. Get on with the reopening, they said. Chicago will not be cowed.
For businesses that were hit, City
Hall has vowed to work directly with insurance companies to clear away red tape and speed up the processing of claims. That must be a top concern.
The restaurant association, which says half of the city’s 7,500 eateries remain shut down, has proposed that the city waive the fees for sidewalk cafe permits for six months and waive the 0.50% restaurant tax for a year. The city should strongly consider those or other options, to get this essential industry solidly back on its feet.
Another priority must be a continued police presence at pharmacies in neighborhoods hard hit by violence. No one, especially a senior citizen, should be unable to get a prescription filled because somebody trashed the local Walgreens.
City Hall also has vowed to set up a relief fund for devastated businesses, but the city’s budget woes will limit what it can do. Private philanthropy, corporations and others with big pockets can show their commitment to rebuilding by digging deep to donate.
And what can you do?
If you have the means, you might consider contributing to one of several fundraising efforts to help businesses hit by the looters, such as the one set up by the nonprofit My Block, My Hood, My City.
And support your local businesses, obviously and always.
Chicago will still have to make it through hard times. Unemployment will remain Depression-era high. The coronavirus could roar back, which some experts warn is a sure thing. City finances, already troubled, have been devastated.
Yet, as we tell ourselves, we’re the city that works.
We can do this.
THE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION HAS PROPOSED THAT THE CITY WAIVE THE FEES FOR SIDEWALK CAFE PERMITS FOR SIX MONTHS AND WAIVE THE 0.50% RESTAURANT TAX FOR A YEAR. THE CITY SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER THOSE OR OTHER OPTIONS, TO GET THIS ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY SOLIDLY BACK ON ITS FEET.