“I don’t know who wants to please Abbott”: This week, Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, announced the imminent end of health restrictions linked to the pandemic, and in Houston, restaurateurs and customers are bewildered.
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Evelyne Marcks has a coffee on the terrace of Central City Co-op. This resident of the Heights, the bourgeois-bohemian neighborhood of the state’s largest city, says Mr. Abbott “probably wants to please the right-wing fringe who live in places where, to be honest, there is no no need for masks ”,“ like in the countryside ”, she believes.
The issue of masks in the United States has been heavily politicized under the Trump administration, and although new Democratic President Joe Biden urges his compatriots to wear it, divisions persist.
On Tuesday, the governor of Texas announced the imminent end of the wearing of the compulsory mask and the total reopening of businesses, estimating that the second most populous state in the United States had “the means to protect” its population from the coronavirus.
For Jessica Navas, one of the owners of Central City Co-op, the governor’s decision will not change anything in his establishment.
“We will continue to require the wearing of masks for our customers,” she says.
And “it will remain the case as long as it is recommended by the CDC,” the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, the country’s leading federal public health agency.
The same goes for Matthew Pak, owner of the imposing Taco Stand and Burger Joint on the main thoroughfare that crosses the Heights.
“We will continue to demand that our team and our customers wear a mask. We will continue to disinfect, keep everything very, very clean and, where possible, enforce physical distancing, ”he said.
“There is only a small percentage of people who have the vaccine. And there are none in our team, ”he explains. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do to take off the masks.”
To date, 4.1 million Texans, or 14.2% of the population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This is two points below the national average. The recent cold snap, which in particular caused large power cuts, partly explains this delay.
A little further, in front of a huge Texas flag painted on the corrugated iron of his restaurant, Richard Orozco, co-owner of Piper’s BBQ & Beer, still in the Heights district, recognizes the embarrassment in which the governor’s announcement places him. .
For less than six months, he has been serving barbecue enthusiasts a delicious “brisket”, beef brisket, partly cooked in foils.
“Restaurants have nothing to gain from such a situation,” he explains. Because “whatever we do, there will inevitably be a noisy minority. If we decide to apply a mask policy, some will criticize us loud and clear. If we don’t say a mask, some will criticize us even harder. So that puts us in a difficult situation ”.
As a result, he and his associates decided to let their clients choose whether or not to wear a mask.
This is also the strategy of Angela’s Oven, located in a quieter part of the district, in the middle of the pavilions.
This bakery has succeeded in seducing the affluent and international population which contributes to the gentrification of this part of northern Houston.
Before the pandemic, the small interior space of the bakery allowed a few customers to sit down. Owner Angela (she prefers not to give her last name) does not plan to revert to the previous configuration.
“I think our employees will probably continue to wear a mask. It’s more comfortable for the person who works and for the customer, ”she explains. And “I think we will give our customers the choice to wear a mask or not.” As for physical distancing, it “will always be respected inside”.
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