Reopening Chicago: Lightfoot says restaurants may reopen in June

Chicago restaurants might be able to reopen in June and residents may be allowed to sit outside enjoying music, theater and other outdoor activities, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.

Lightfoot also told the Tribune she will eventually reopen the lakefront, though it’s too soon to say when.

The mayor made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with the Tribune during which she said the city will “be in a position to see some form of summer life start in June.”

Asked to elaborate, Lightfoot said, “I see a world in which restaurants can reopen cautiously in June. I see a world over the course of the summer where people can sit outside and enjoy music and theater and other outdoor activities. I think we’re going to come up with some very creative ways in which those things can happen.”

In making any decisions, Lightfoot said the city will be guided by the public health metrics her administration announced earlier this month “but we’re trending in the right direction.”

“I know people are anxious to get back outside and there’s a lot we’re learning around why being outside is much better than being cooped up inside … so I am pressing my team and the people that we’re in conversation with, the recovery task force, to really think expansively about opportunities to do that,” Lightfoot said.

Earlier this month, Lightfoot laid out a five-phase plan that layers additional standards for rates of infection and testing capacity on top of the state rules Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled earlier. As with Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan, Lightfoot’s framework sets a high bar for returning to normalcy.

Lightfoot can’t set looser standards than the statewide ones laid out by the governor, but she can tailor them to the city.

Under Lightfoot’s plan, the city also would need to be able to test 135,000 residents per month, with positive rates decreasing below 15% of those tested in the community and at least 14 days of declining rates of new cases, on average. Positive rates of below 30% would be needed in “congregate” settings such as nursing homes, shelters and jails, according to the Lightfoot plan.

Those standards are stricter than what Pritzker laid out in his statewide plan. The governor called for positive rates at or below 20% and an increase in the positive rate of no more than 10 percentage points over 14 days.

But one key simmering issue has been how the city and state will address restaurant reopenings in coming weeks. Pritzker’s rules for reopening have been criticized by Illinois Restaurant Association head Sam Toia as too strict, while Lightfoot has included Toia on a coronavirus recovery task force and repeatedly expressed concerns about mom and pop restaurants going out of business.

Lightfoot likely will need some buy-in from Pritzker to make reopenings happen.

During the Tribune interview, Lightfoot also said the lakefront will eventually reopen, but couldn’t give a time frame.

“It’s not going to reopen probably as fast as people want it to, and it’s definitely going to reopen at least initially with a lot of restrictions around it, but the lakefront is the jewel of our city,” Lightfoot said.