NorthJersey.com is reporting that indoor capacity for key N.J. business sectors – including indoor dining, gyms, casinos and commercial enterprises like barber shops and beauty salons – will soon increase to 50%. We don’t have the official announcement yet so the specifics remain fuzzy, but many will treat the announcement as a welcome relief and a sign that “the end” is finally nigh.
I don’t see much in this development to celebrate, Save Jerseyans. Thousands are dead. One-third of Garden State small businesses failed last year under restrictions which should’ve been eased many months ago; some restrictions should’ve never been imposed in the first place.
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And there’s another thing: our regional neighbors are opening up to 100% capacity.
Plenty of red states are opening up and eliminating their mask mandates altogether, but it isn’t just Republican outposts moving towards normal at a steady pace. Maryland just ended its own capacity restrictions. Maryland is “blue” but has a Republican governor (albeit a liberal one). Connecticut – blue as blue gets even by New England standards – is now back at 100% capacity for its own restaurants.
Remember: Connecticut was one of the states with which New Jersey was SUPPOSED to move in unison on enacting reopening measures.
“Just as we had a regional approach to dealing with the upside of the curve and we still do, we discussed in a general sense a regional approach to […] the reopening, slowly and responsibly whenever that moment comes, of businesses,” Murphy said last April.
So much for all that.
This isn’t science.
It’s not data-driven.
He’s still picking numbers at random. He’s been doing it for 12 months.
Celebrate if you want, folks. I get it. We’re all desperate for this tyranny to end and to recapture some sense of normalcy for our communities, families and businesses.
Phil Murphy’s arbitrarily-awarded breadcrumbs shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone.
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