bkibler@altoonamirror.com
Pennsylvania ought to consider going back to the mid-2020 “green phase” guidance for restaurants to mitigate the harm that shutdowns have inflicted on them since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the head of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, speaking at a live-streamed House Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday.
Proposals for financial help are welcome, but restaurants need to be able to open productively again, association CEO John Longstreet said.
The green phase guidance allows for indoor dining in keeping with building occupancy limits, with bar seating, provided there are physical barriers or 6 feet of space.
Pa. restaurants call for financial help, reforms to survive blows from coronavirus pandemic
Updated Jan 27, 2021;
Posted Jan 27, 2021
Diners sit outside in front of Cafe Fresco Center City in Harrisburg last summer. Co-owner Jen Fertenbaugh stressed during a House Commerce Committee hearing on Jan. 27 that Pennsylvania s restaurants need reform and financial help in order to survive.
File photo Edward Sutelan
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Struggling Pennsylvania restaurant owners Wednesday stressed a dire need for relief or thousands of restaurants could be in jeopardy of closing.
Representatives of the industry made their concerns clear during a state House Commerce Committee hearing. Amid stories of laid-off employees, financial losses and constant constraints, they asked lawmakers for reforms and financial help.
The hearing comes at a time when restaurants and bars in the state are operating under restrictions imposed by Pa. Government Tom Wolf to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Restaurants operate with an indoor capacity of 50%, there is no seating at the bar, a 23:00 drink sale is closed and the mandatory sale of food with alcoholic drinks is mandatory.
Across the country, other states such as Ohio and New York have measures in place, including a 10pm curfew. Many cities like Chicago have recently lifted eating bans as the number of COVID cases is declining.
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John Longstreet, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, stressed that the industry has been hit hardest in the country. He said Pennsylvania restaurants are facing some of the most draconian mitigation efforts.
Kenney had plans. Then the pandemic hit. Can he avoid lame-duck status and get Philly ‘back on track’? Laura McCrystal, Sean Collins Walsh, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Mayor Jim Kenney began his second term last year by promising citywide street sweeping, hiring Philadelphia’s first Black woman police commissioner with hopes of reforming the department, and proposing a budget that relied on a booming economy to continue the spending increases of his first term.
That all feels like a long time ago.
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This year he continues to face the raging pandemic that upended 2020, the resulting economic crisis, and calls to defund the police. Kenney said his goal for 2021 is just to get the city “back on track.” He said he also wants to focus on reducing gun violence, increasing school funding, improving policing, and reducing racial inequities.