New economic landscape: Hudson Valley merchants, government realign priorities
With the Mid-Hudson Valley region having moved into the third phase of New York state”™s four-phase COVID-19 reopening plan on June 23, some businesses were just beginning to bring back employees from the work-at-home environment while others, especially in the retail, restaurant and personal services fields, were involved in efforts to attract customers and convince them that they”™d be safe from infection.
Phase three presented the opportunity for a major step forward for businesses along the main streets of many communities because it allowed for restaurants to resume indoor dining service, albeit at 50% of normal capacity, after having been relegated to only takeout and outdoor seating under prior reopening phases.
Many villages, towns and cities in Westchester had tried to accommodate restaurateurs, who represent a significant source of downtown activity, sales tax and other revenues for municipalities, by relaxing parking enforcement to make it easier for patrons to stop and pick up outgoing orders and, when outdoor dining became permissible, easing the application process for sidewalk and patio dining permits.
The village of Tarrytown on June 19 and 20 closed Main Street in the evening to allow for additional social distancing as restaurants moved tables onto the sidewalks and streets and retailers opened their doors wide.
“Just because our businesses are opening doesn”™t mean the virus isn”™t still out there,” the village reminded would-be downtown visitors.
In Larchmont, parking spaces had been blocked off to provide restaurants that were putting tables on the sidewalk additional room to spread out into the street for dining.
“We planned ahead ways we could utilize public space in creative ways,” Larchmont Mayor Lorraine Walsh told a news conference that had been organized by Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
“I issued some executive orders and opened up the streets, parking lanes, sidewalks, parking lots and created a new expedited permit process to allow it to happen,” Walsh said.
She named the concept “Al Fresco Larchmont.”
“I think everyone is doing much better now that we”™ve been able to do this than they would have had we just done business as usual,” Walsh said. “Here”™s fingers crossed that everyone does really well and all my businesses stay in business because Larchmont is a great place. So much of what makes it special relies on our local business owners.”
Photo by Peter Katz
Nancy White, owner of the Larchmont florist shop The Flower Bar and president of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “We tried to make resources available to all of the businesses if they weren”™t e-commerce enabled, to be able to have someone who could do that for them. We created a delivery service for those who didn”™t have a delivery service. People could order and they could get things delivered to local customers and then, of course, we just tried to be a communications arm for everybody.”
Ellie Zieminski, owner of the women”™s clothing store Love Bella, said, “We have been closed for three months and during that time I reached out to a lot of customers and during that time we did a lot of home delivery where we would pick out an assortment of goods for people, bring it to their house and let them try it on in the privacy of their own home.”
She explained that they took precautions by cleaning the merchandise between try-ons and, when the store was allowed to reopen under phase two, put new procedures into effect that will remain in the third phase and as long after as necessary.
“We sanitize everything. We have one-way walking, everybody has a mask on, we wash our hands. We”™re just very excited to be back,” Zieminski said.
Phase three of the reopening allows for activities in just about all areas except for the arts, entertainment, recreation and education, which are relegated to phase four.
Just when the 5,900-seat Radio City Music Hall, 843-seat Tarrytown Music Hall or 1,372-seat Concert Hall at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College will again be allowed to hold sold-out concerts remains to be determined.
In the meantime, while restaurants have greater leeway to satisfy the hunger for gourmet dining under phase three, the hunger for entertainment is being met by numerous online streaming concerts, dramatic presentations and film appreciation events along with pop-up drive-in movie theaters.
For example:
”¢ Westchester County has scheduled drive-in movies for the Kensico Dam Plaza. On July 17, “The Secret Life of Pets 2” will be shown, while “Wonder Park” is scheduled for Aug. 14.
Ӣ The city of White Plains has been showing drive-in movies in a downtown parking lot and a parking lot at the White Plains High School.
Ӣ YorktownӪs recreation department staged a drive-in movie at the Jefferson Valley Mall parking lot.