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Outdoor seating is available on the patio at Water Street Landing in Lewiston.
Outdoor seating is available on the patio at Water Street Landing in Lewiston.

Cuomo offers additional thoughts on outdoor dining

Thu, Jun 4th 2020 04:05 pm

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered some additional ideas on outdoor dining, a caveat he granted eateries in phase two reopening regions.

“Because the numbers today are good, we are going to act on the data that we have. We are going to go to outdoor dining as part of phase two, and that affects all the communities that are already in phase two,” he said Thursday.

“Remember what outdoor dining is: it is outdoors. That's why it's called, ‘outdoor dining.’ ” Cuomo added. “I know you have a lot of restaurants that want to open. This doesn't say ‘restaurants open.’ The enclosed spaces are an issue. Outdoor dining – there's no roof, there could be a canopy, but it is outside space. It's open-air space. The wind is blowing. There's ventilation. It's open-air space. You're still 6 feet apart; wear face coverings; and there are points in the guidelines that are online. But I want to stress: This is outdoor dining space. It's not a restaurant with the doors open. It is outdoor dining space.”

The governor continues to approach reopening with caution.

“Why? Because we've seen too many examples of reopening where they didn't do it right and it boomeranged. Period,” Cuomo said. “You look at the states that opened fast without metrics, without guardrails, it's a boomerang. And it's not just one or two states as an example. North Carolina, look at these numbers of these other states. Look at when they opened and look at the line after they reopened. North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Arizona. Look at those numbers. This happens in New York with our density, we go right back to where we were. And it's not the exception; it's almost the rule. California, you look at them reopening and then look at the curve after the reopening.”

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