Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey says the City is ready to go along with the governor’s “Phase 1” of re-opening the economy, but urges residents to stay the course on social distancing.
"I want you to know that each day I speak to the hospitals here in our town, and we review the data – and we too are ready to move forward with this executive order," Dailey said in a video posted to his Twitter account. "But I got to tell you folks, we’re doing the right thing, and we’ve got to stick with it. The reason why we’re seeing the numbers shine a little favorably on Tallahassee is because we are following the CDC guidelines, we are social distancing.”
Governor Ron DeSantis’ first step in re-opening allows restaurants to offer outdoor seating and 25% capacity indoors, and retail businesses to operate at 25% indoor capacity, beginning Monday.
Still, some local businesses have expressed hesitancy on opening up to customers next week.
Carla Reid, the owner of Black Dog Café, says even though she's had to take out loans to keep her employees paid, her indoor and outdoor spaces will remain closed.
"I understand people are itching to get out and about, and I understand that businesses are drowning, believe me. I'm not even sure there's going to be a place for my business when this is all over, but I also understand that we are facing something we have never in our lives faced. Not in this lifetime," Reid says.
Reid says she's hoping in the next few weeks to serve takeout through a window. But she says right now, it doesn’t feel like there’s enough information to open her doors.
"I do not feel that we have enough available testing in our area or in the state of Florida to make reopening businesses a fully safe enterprise, and so I'm choosing not to," Reid says.
Reid has set up an online shop to sell bulk coffee and honey. Another business, Cosmic Cat Comics, is also waiting to reopen.
"I just rather us stay quarantined for a little bit longer because we have gone this long so far we might as well just keep working at it if we're doing so well," says owner Ned Stacey.
Stacey says he's waiting until May 20 to allow people in his store. He says if a lot of people come inside, the space is too small to enforce social distancing. He adds publishers aren’t releasing new merchandise for comic book stores until May 20 anyway.
Other businesses, like Andrew's Downtown, say they are planning to reopen. In a Facebook post, Andrew's says its team is working out the specifics of how its reopening will look, but it "can't wait" to serve customers in what it says will be a "safe and cleanly environment."
As businesses across the state prepare to reopen, Bill Herrle with the National Federation of Independent Business in Florida says there may be hiccups.
"Will the customers be there, and will my employees be there, but if they got those two ingredients, they know that they can put their business back on the road to recovery," Herrle says.
