Businesspeople in NOLA...

[PeterB]

... just put out a full page ad in the Times-Picayune, requesting to reopen all businesses here in NOLA.

This goes directly against Mayor Cantrell, who extended the stay-at-home order (and closure of non-essential businesses) through 5/15, and has said she doesn't want any major events taking place in the city until 2021.

While I understand the lost wages, business closures, financial pressure, etc., I also think to myself: if you have the money to put in a full page ad, you don't have the money to hold you over for a few months? And anyway, what tourist in their right mind is going to want to come here, when we have a growth rate for the virus that is comparable to NYC?

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/healt...58a76561d0

Edit: and it's not like some businesses aren't still open -- restaurants, etc., are still doing curbside pickup, delivery, etc. In fact, I'm asking a friend to do a donut run for me on Wednesday morning.

[rjmacs]

Petty greedy owners.

[Lemon Drop]

So much uncertainty, and we have no template for this.
I can understand why business owners who rely on visitor dollars are very nervous about this summer and fall, when the mayor is saying she wants to cancel all large events for 2020.

I think the federal gov't needs to go and ahead an announce a guaranteed minimum income for every American, in effect until businesses can reopen. You won't be getting rich but most people could pay their mortgage or rent and buy food. Supplemented by local and state support to lower income families.

And please let health people, not business people, make these decisions. (I dream, I know. )

[PeterB]

LD, I would have agreed with most of what you'd said, except for one simple fact: the majority of the risk that will come with reopening everything, will fall on the "little guy" -- the cashiers, the cleaning people, the servers, the delivery people. The business heads will likely see little of the risk, yet reap most of the benefit.

[pdq]

Translated: We need our profits and we’re willing to trade Grandpa’s life (or yours) for it.

[Lemon Drop]

PeterB wrote:
LD, I would have agreed with most of what you'd said, except for one simple fact: the majority of the risk that will come with reopening everything, will fall on the "little guy" -- the cashiers, the cleaning people, the servers, the delivery people. The business heads will likely see little of the risk, yet reap most of the benefit.

I didn't say anything that is contrary to your message. I agree with you. In fact those are the people who need the income support that I said should be robust and continuing.

[PeterB]

Lemon Drop wrote:
[quote=PeterB]
LD, I would have agreed with most of what you'd said, except for one simple fact: the majority of the risk that will come with reopening everything, will fall on the "little guy" -- the cashiers, the cleaning people, the servers, the delivery people. The business heads will likely see little of the risk, yet reap most of the benefit.

I didn't say anything that is contrary to your message. I agree with you. In fact those are the people who need the income support that I said should be robust and continuing.
Yes, I know ... this whole situation underscores just how badly we need a living wage in this country and how badly people are willing to sacrifice others' health and lives to score a quick buck.

The businesspeople could argue that their employees are really the ones who need this ... but again it's their "underlings" who'll be shouldering the burden of these decisions.

[deckeda]

Cantrell pushed back: https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/ar...39d74.html

I don't envy any of the players. I will say however, that being put on notice in April that tourism will not save the economy is far more notice than the virus gave us.

There will be a reinvention, a painful one borne out of necessity.

[PeterB]

deckeda wrote:
Cantrell pushed back: https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/ar...39d74.html

I don't envy any of the players. I will say however, that being put on notice in April that tourism will not save the economy is far more notice than the virus gave us.

There will be a reinvention, a painful one borne out of necessity.

Yeah and I do think a point could be made that this should be getting the business leaders to reconsider how they do business. They can still make money and employ people, they just have to take appropriate precautions.

Obviously, I totally side with Mayor Cantrell on this one. Ultimately, she has to answer to the people, and anyone who dies because we ended restrictions too soon, that blood would be on her hands. Understandably, she doesn't want to be in that position -- who would.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

The cities that opened back up too early in 1918 did not do as well as those that observed the quarantine properly. Nobody remembers it because the cities that did bad were shamed and buried the history.