Restaurant owners and workers rallied on Wednesday in Port Chester against COVID-19 restrictions, saying the limitations are putting a severe strain on businesses.
Dozens of people marched to the village hall while protesting for the right to reopen indoor dining. Port Chester is still the only community in Westchester in the orange zone. Under those restrictions imposed a few weeks ago, gyms, salons, and indoor dining were closed.
But just two weeks ago, gyms and salon owners held their own protest for their right to reopen. And four days after that, Gov. Cuomo announced that they were allowed to open back up under 25% capacity.
"Since hair salons and gyms have been open, numbers haven't spiked, and we believe that the same will be for restaurants," says Carlos Santos, owner Aqui Es Santa Fe Restaurant. "We try to hold on as long as we can, keeping our full-time employees and some of our part-time employees, but we had to cut some people…those are families and those are kids and those are households."
Santos says that they just want a fighting chance, and they will take anything they can get - whether that's indoor dining capacity at 25% or 50%.
Other owners say they're frustrated that neighboring towns like Rye, under the same ZIP code but under the yellow zone, are allowed to be open. They also argue that indoor dining is not linked to rising infection rates.