Regional Dish: Varied Rules Mean Uneven Pain For US Eateries By John BIERS
12/29/20 AT 8:46 PM
Houston restaurant chain Niko Niko s, like most American restaurants, took a hit from the Covid-19 shutdowns, though owner Dimitri Fetokakis believes it could have been much worse.
But in New York, Vivian Forte, who owns Pisticci in Harlem with her husband, described the local city pandemic rules as persecution.
More lenient rules with higher indoor capacity limits of 75 percent cushioned the blow for Texas eateries. Pisticci restaurant and bar owner Vivian Forte, pictured with her husband and co-owner Michael Forte, describes New York s local pandemic rules as persecution Photo: AFP / John BIERS
New York State Department of Health (DOH) has announced its deployment of “mask squads” to ensure people adhere to public health guidelines. In a Dec. 7 email to employees, the DOH said it was looking for staff members to volunteer for these squads, which will handle “community outreach” and “enforcement of … regulations related to the use of face coverings [or] masks and social distancing.”
Volunteers who sign up will see “immediate [and] urgent deployment” to the Orange and Rockland counties and will be eligible for overtime pay. The email indicated that mask squad members will go on duty from Dec. 5 to Dec. 11, and consequent weeks through New Year’s Day.
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A man orders food at a street vendor in Zuccotti Park during the lunch hour in Lower Manhattan, April 12, 2019 in New York City. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Pandemic complicates Council s latest push to reform street vendor industry
MD Alam was used to seeing a steady stream of customers at his Midtown food truck before Covid-19 hit.
The cart he has set up for years on the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 44th Street where he sells South Asian specialties like tandoori chicken and biryani was frequented by office workers and tourists alike in what was, until nine months ago, one of the city’s busiest neighborhoods.
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