Amid mounting pressure, Gov. Tim Walz pledged Monday that he and senior officials are working with the hospitality industry to reopen their businesses in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
But, while empathizing with business owners who are among the hardest hit by his orders, he offered no sense of when that might happen.
“I get it, this sense of urgency,” Walz said, when asked about the impatience of some in the sector who — armed with sanitizing and social distancing plans and backed by Republicans — are pleading for a chance to give it a go.
PRESSURE MOUNTS
State Senate Republican leaders Monday morning held a news conference at the Capitol featuring business owners who say they are ready to reopen. Among them were owners of restaurants, bars, a live theater and a salon — the very types of businesses that public health experts fret over because they often involve unpredictable situations with face-to-face interactions among people who don’t live together.
“We want to lead; we can do this safely,” said Matt Winter, owner of Plate Restaurant in Prior Lake. He furnished letters signed by his city’s mayor and three council members laying out plans to reopen the interiors of restaurants and other retailers.
Andrew Hulse, owner of 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons in Maple Grove and Wayzata, also spoke. “Most of what we do every day is infection control. Stylists are trained and licensed in infection control and receive ongoing instruction in infection control,” he said in a news release.
At least one barbershop in St. Paul — King Milan’s on University Avenue — went so far as to start cutting hair on Monday, in direct violation of Walz’s stay-at-home order. Owner Milan Dennie said he petitioned state officials to accept his safety plan but got no response.
“All of us can empathize with the businesses that still haven’t been allowed to open. But empathy is not enough,” state Sen. Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, said in a statement. “Taking out government loans that need to be repaid is not enough. Extended unemployment benefits are not enough. These small, local businesses can open to the public in a manner that is probably safer than many big box stores are doing right now. We owe it to these entrepreneurs to show us how they can safely and slowly reopen, and work with them to get it right.”
WALZ RESPONSE
Walz, however, at a Monday afternoon news briefing, stood by his decision to keep such businesses closed, for now.
“Yes, I trust the vast majority, but every time we have one (where) that doesn’t happen, you get a hot spot, and the situation we saw — look how quickly one business turned into 1,100 (cases),” he said, apparently referring to the JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minn.; Nobles County has had 1,011 positive tests for the coronavirus as of Sunday afternoon, the vast majority of which were connected to the plant.
Walz said not all the pressure on him to reopen the economy is justified, and not every call for relaxing restrictions gives the coronavirus the respect it deserves.
“If there’s the desire that we need to have a sense of urgency and get these businesses back opening, and balance it with public safety, they’re exactly right. Those who say we need to open this up because it’s overblown, it’s just the flu, they’re dead wrong,” he said.
Walz said he and Steve Grove, commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, have been deeply engaged with various elements of such businesses, and plans are being drafted for how to reopen.
The governor acknowledged that many businesses need advance notice to recall staff, order supplies or book customers or clients.
But, when?
“I don’t have an exact date,” he said. “We’re trying to be as clear as possible and to work through the complexity, and not to let it grind in a bureaucracy, understanding that it needs to happen quickly. My hope was in these two weeks you’d start to see some changes in things, and I am very interested in looking at other states and other models.”
He said 91 percent of Minnesota’s workforce now has access to employment, but he acknowledged most of the others work in hospitality.
To be clear, not all businesses want to reopen yet.
From a fly fishing shop in Minneapolis to The Spectacle Shoppe in St. Paul and New Brighton, several business owners have told the Pioneer Press they only feel comfortable opening limited locations on limited days for limited hours, both because of the health risks and the economic uncertainties. Some restaurants have closed permanently, concluding that running at partial capacity won’t pay the bills.
Nonetheless, even Walz’s supporters are saying they’re ready.
At his news conference Monday, Walz was joined by Liz Rammer, president and CEO of Hospitality Minnesota, and Abdi Kahin, CEO of Afro Deli, which has several dine-in and carry-out locations in the metro. Both praised Walz and his administration for working with the industry to hash out plans for reopening.
But, within their statements were also hints of urgency.
Rammer said her industry, which employs some 300,000 people in Minnesota, has taken a “monumental hit” and that, based on a recent survey of resorts, restaurants, private campgrounds, outfitters and others, “more than half of these businesses face certain, permanent closure in the next two months.”
She thanked Walz for acknowledging the predicament the industry is in, and then added, “We’re confident, too, our hospitality businesses are ready to open now. The businesses and the public, they’re ready to approach this new world.”
Kahin said he, too, looks forward to returning to business and awaits Walz’s green light. “We are ready to implement the new guidance of the governor and his team,” Kahin said, adding a note of optimism. “2020, if we get through safe, is going to be a time of profit for us.”