Restaurant rules need more sense, flexibility

I follow all of the covid mandates and restrictions. I can live with most but it bothers me in that how some things violate mandates and others do not. Enforcement seems both literal and arbitrary.

Literal in that dining outside means sidewalk, patio or driveway. As long as you are in that location all is good even though there may be an entire tent put up. It’s now “outside.” But really it’s just another inside only 30 to 40 degrees colder than the “real” inside. But by the definition of patio, sidewalk or driveway it is “outside.”

Arbitrary because a restaurant that can open garage doors and make inside become outside cannot open as they are under a roof and not “on the sidewalk, driveway or patio. What is the difference? For my money, I’d rather eat under the solid roof with the garage doors open than in a wet temporary tent.

Make the mandates but be appropriate and flexible to the situation. These guys need a path to survival, not a mandate of “my way or the highway.” The state raised what these guys have to pay employees a few days ago. It is agonizing watching the slow death of these places on the news when many can still comply without being “indoors” under a tent on a patio, sidewalk or driveway.

I can understand theaters, sporting events, etc., but where flexibility can happen it needs to be allowed.

Guy Sykes

Arlington

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