As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into the foreseeable future, the question of how to safely begin reopening nonessential businesses looms over municipal leaders. WAMC spoke with Pittsfield, Massachusetts Mayor Linda Tyer Tuesday about how the pandemic is affecting the community.
TYER: Well, so I understand that there's a lot of interest and inquiry and concern about reopening and from my perspective, the city of Pittsfield will reopen using the recommendations that will be forthcoming from the governor's reopening advisory board. So we know that our stay at home orders have been extended to May 18th. May 18th is not the day that we reopen, not in the Commonwealth and not in the city of Pittsfield. But I do believe that by May 18th, we will have a comprehensive report that's been issued by the governor's reopening advisory board that we will then build upon, so that the city of Pittsfield opens in a manner that is in alignment with the governor's recommendations and in a way that allows us to do it safely, while minding for sure, the ongoing need to protect public health, but also understand that there's an economic element to this. And there might be opportunities for us to phase in an opening that's both safe but also allows for the economy to get started.
WAMC: In your mind, what would the first steps in that phasing-in process be? Are there any key steps or areas that you think would come before others?
Well, I think that there will certainly be a requirement that the community meet certain public health benchmarks and metrics. And so that will be the first step in the process that if this report that's issued by the reopening advisory board includes several public health metrics to be met, that will be our first step in the process. Do we meet the metrics? Now, I'm assuming that that's going to be included in the recommendations coming from the governor. So, I'm hesitant to say too, too, too much, because we don't know yet what's going to be included in the in the recommendations. But our first step will be to assess what the recommendations are and then to understand how do we implement them here in the city of Pittsfield.
From your vantage point as the main representative of Pittsfield, how is the pandemic trending here in the city?
We have had several weeks of very good data related to the spread of the infection and the recovery. Now, I caution though, because people are still getting sick. But we have had a very positive downward trend. And so we're in a good position, I believe, to be able slowly implement a phased-in approach to reopening.
Economically speaking, do you have a sense at this point of what kind of a hit the city has taken from the shutdown?
Well, you know, I understand that that the word economics has broad meaning in this case. So what we know is that lots of people are out of work. We know that lots of businesses are closed, we know that the city is not going to see a strong collection rate on hotel and meals tax, we know that we're not going to see what we'd hoped for with the marijuana tax revenue because those establishments are closed. So from the economic standpoint, we are definitely in a precarious situation both from a community standpoint and also from a municipal budget standpoint. So these are difficult times.
At this point in the pandemic experience, do you foresee any elements of municipal life in Pittsfield forever being different moving forward?
Well, I think for the very near future, and I mean, you know, for the next six months, I think we are going to see a change in our habits and in our routines. For example, I imagine that wearing face masks is going to become part of our life for an extended period of time, so that'll be new for all of us. This is a new habit that we're going to have to get into a routine of practicing. I do think that we're going to see a very slow reopening of large gatherings. So for the long term, six to twelve months, we're going to see very specific restrictions on large gatherings. So I think, you know, these are things that are a big change for all of us. It's a disruption to what we've gotten used to. But we're in extraordinary times and we have got to continue to exercise extraordinary measures.
Given those new restrictions on large gatherings and Pittsfield and the Berkshires' often heavy reliance on tourism, do you foresee a different economic model for the city moving forward due to those restrictions?
I think we are going to experience for this summer and fall a loss, as we already know. A number of our cultural organizations have determined not to have a season this year, so that's definitely going to have an impact on the economy in Pittsfield and the Berkshires. At the same time, though, we still have travel restrictions, we still have to be mindful of where we've been and where we're going. We do not have a treatment plan that's reliable. We do not have a vaccine and we do not have wide testing capabilities. So we are not yet in a position to get back to the way we were pre-pandemic.
The city has begun to release some guidance to restaurants and places where food are served for reopening. Can you talk me through a little bit about what people should expect from going out of their house to eat in the near future?
So we haven't issued any guidelines on reopening any kind of food establishments that aren't already open, right? So the only order that's new is the order requiring employees and customers all food establishments to wear a mask, and the definition of food establishments includes supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, grab-and-go restaurants. So prior to this, wearing a mask was a recommendation. Now wearing a mask is an order issued by the Pittsfield Board of Health, and beginning tomorrow, there will be an order in place that's been issued by Governor Baker.
