While stopping the spread of Covid19 is our main goal, our economic revival is also of utmost importance, and things have to be thought through.
Last night: The Noord POLICE attempted to close Casa Tua, Garden Fresh, Tango, Asia, Salt & Pepper. Apparently when the MinPres said rum shops, bars and nightclubs, it wasn’t clear enough.
For the restaurants to close at 8:30pm, they might as well NOT open!
A bit of old news from July:
Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city was “waiving all the rules” regarding sidewalk dining … All you have to do is tell us you want to do it and you’re in. You can use the sidewalks or part of the sidewalks around your restaurants, you can take up the curb and put tables there and put up dividers to keep you separated from the traffic.
They also cleared up to 20 corridors and shut them to traffic to allow for expanded street dining!
Consequently 4,800 restaurants across the city had applied the following day, and more to come, to participate in the sidewalk and street dining greenlighted during the second phase of reopening
In Aruba:
Hi Rona, I have a concern that I would like to address to you.
Because of safety measures for our staff and the wellbeing of our customers, The Goddess Grill – fictional name – made preparations to extend the terrace outside the premises on the square facing the House of Malcontent, the square that took five years to build and stayed empty ever since and is hardly ever used.
As we were making preparations, our lovely neighbor, who is perhaps not very fond of us, came and complaint that we are not allowed to use public areas without a permit.
The next day, our very first opening day, after being closed for over 4.5 months, with great excitement we placed some extra tables outside to ensure the 1,5M distance. We couldn’t use our interior, right?!
One hour later we had the Police standing at the door, demanding we take all tables inside since there had been a complaint and we do not have a valid permit in hand. An application meant nothing to them, they said.
For the record: The Goddess Grill sent an application to DIP for a precario BEFORE Covid19, in October 2019, and a second one in July 2020.
BUT DIP NEVER ANSWERES. They haven’t done any work since January 2020, with the change of ministers.
We never got an answer or reaction to any of these applications. We lawyered up. And we are going to spend money to fight for the economic revival of the island, because GOA doesn’t make it easy for us to get on our feet, pay our bills and staffers.
The Police came after our socially-distant tables, in the empty square while being totally indifferent and unresponsive to the glaring violations at the Palm Beach super-spreaders.
TODAY, we are back to no tables again. We had to already cancel many reservations. If you do not release permits for outdoor dining, we will shut down and resume begging for Dutch handouts.
