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A
dozen or so people were strolling about the sprawling open-air
shopping center Monday afternoon, with three seated on the patio
of a Tex-Mex restaurant. Only one shopper wore a mask, and the
loudest noises were from songbirds perched in the live oak trees
along the deserted pedestrian thoroughfares.
"I've seen one customer today - they didn't buy anything," said
Taylor Jund, who was keeping watch over an empty Chaser clothing
store. "There's absolutely no one coming around here."
While protests across the United States demand state governments
allow business to reopen and people to get back to work, the
vast majority of Americans balk at relaxing stay-at-home orders
too quickly, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polling.
Texas, Georgia and other southern states are leading the way in
letting stay at home orders expire and gradually allowing people
go about their business. But the early days of the opening in
Texas show that many residents might want to stay home anyway.
"The cases of coronavirus aren't really going down, so I suspect
people aren't comfortable going to malls or getting back to
normal life," David Tamayo said while sitting on a shaded bench
with his girlfriend at The Domain, where he said they came to
relax outdoors.
Restaurants, retail stores and malls in Texas are now allowed to
open at 25% capacity in most areas. Stores in rural counties
with five or fewer cases can operate at 50%. A second phase is
planned for May 18 if infection rates decline.
On Monday, Texas reported that it had 884 deaths from COVID-19
and 32,332 cases total, though it has among the lowest per
capita testing rate of any state.
PLEXIGLASS BARRIERS
With temperatures in the 90s, Texans flocked to parks, beaches
and rivers over the weekend. Beachgoers packed the shore in the
resort town of Galveston, though police said most people seemed
to be practicing social distancing.
A large gathering of youth at a lake outside Lubbock, in West
Texas, prompted authorities to say on Sunday they were closing
the beach there back down.
Still, in most spots in the state - which is larger than France
- there has been plenty of room for outdoor recreation and
social distancing.
Christy Armstrong, who works for a food distribution company,
made the rounds with her restaurant clients across the Houston
area on Monday. During a stop at Arnaldo Richards' Picos Mexican
restaurant in central Houston, she saw a handful of customers
sitting at a bar, separated from one another by Plexiglas
barriers.
"It's sad to know that this is the first Monday we've reopened,
and a lot of the places are still very empty," Armstrong said.
"I'm a little shocked it's so dead out."
But patience, and even closing down again if there are
coronavirus flare-ups, should be foremost on business owners'
minds, said Laura Hoffman, president of Austin's Chamber of
Commerce.
She said the most important thing for businesses was to figure
out how to safely reopen and for the Chamber to help them do
that, sharing lessons learned at places that have stayed open
all along, such as grocery stores.
"We have to look at this pandemic as a long-term condition," she
said. "We must strike the balance between keeping people healthy
and reopening."
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin; Additional reporting by
Callaghan O'Hare in Houston; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Gerry
Doyle)
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