Flint Considers Partial Street Closings to Help Local Businesses
What do YOU think? Good or bad idea?
The Flint City Council introduced a resolution at their meeting yesterday that would partially close parts of Saginaw St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. to help downtown businesses reopen safely in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Restaurants have been given the go-ahead to open up with limited capacity and social-distance seating, with servers and staff being required to wear masks. In Traverse City, they've closed down parts of Front Street to allow restaurants to have more outdoor seating, and to allow retail businesses to encourage their shoppers to peruse their products outside.
The owner of Cafe Rhema in downtown Flint thinks that this is a good idea, with the outdoor seating being the most attractive part of the proposal. They've been open for the past three weeks for curbside pick-up but, now that they are attempting to return to regular dining, they are limited for seating.
The owner also pointed out to MLive that, just because they've reopened, it doesn't mean that they have the same opportunity to make money as they did before; with limited capacity comes limited revenue. The Governor's orders say that restaurant
What do you think about this? Personally, it would encourage me to shop and dine downtown if I actually saw people outside. Parts of Flint look like a ghost town right now. I'd also feel better about dining out if I had the room to be away from people. Frankly, anything to help local businesses right now.
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