On March 20, 2020 Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-70 ordering all restaurants, bars, taverns, pubs, night clubs, banquet halls, cocktail lounges, cabarets, breweries, cafeterias and any other alcohol and/or food service business establishment with seating for more than ten (I0) people within the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Broward County and Palm Beach County to close on-premises service of customers.  He also ordered the closure of all movie theatres, concert houses, auditoriums, playhouses, bowling alleys, arcades, gymnasiums, fitness studios and beaches.

On March 27, 2020 Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-87 mandating that all parties engaged in rental of vacation rental properties, as defined in section 509.242(l)(c), Florida Statutes, suspend vacation rental operations.  This order was subsequently extended by Executive Order 20-103.

On March 30, 2020 Governor DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-89 restricting public access to businesses and facilities deemed non-essential.

It is now time to let The Governor, the Palm Beach County Mayor, and the Mayor and City Council members of Boca Raton know that the time has come to re-open our State.

The fact is that the impact of the current shutdown is already causing much greater damage to livelihoods and lives than the coronavirus itself. People are literally disappearing. They are the small business owners and their employees that were an integral part of our community. They are residents who have found themselves without a job or a paycheck, too many of whom have been forced to rely on food handouts in order to survive. You may not see or understand first hand their financial hardship or despair, but it's very real. They are real people experiencing real hardship. Their suffering and disappearance should be both disconcerting and saddening to you. The "new normal" is turning into starvation, depression, suicide, child abuse, domestic violence, and pure DESPERATION, and that cannot be acceptable.

Decisions that were made a month ago were made without the benefit of knowing what we know now. The fact is that a million people are not going to die. All the estimates that were put out there have been shown to have been wildly exaggerated. Arbitrary decisions of what businesses are “essential” have led to the destruction of many of those that were forced to close.

Large chains and well-funded restaurant groups have the resources to ride out a protracted shutdown, but the independent restaurants that make up about two-thirds of the American dining landscape may not survive.

Restaurant analysts and operators have been quoting an estimate that 75 percent of the independent restaurants that have been closed to protect Americans from the coronavirus won’t reopen and/or make it. The National Restaurant Association has estimated that the entire industry will lose $225 billion in the coming couple of months and drop five to seven million employees.

The only way forward from today has to be to open the country back up. We went along and shut down, instinctively knowing how bad it was going to hurt, and that was done to give our healthcare system time to get prepared. Guess what? They are prepared now! As a matter of fact, they are actually furloughing employees all over the country and shutting down most of the hospitals that were built for the “surge”. They are cutting back on emergency room personnel, and cutting the hours of others.

Now we have to learn to live with this and start the country back up. We cannot afford not to. We have been trained on how to protect ourselves from the virus. We also know who is most vulnerable. We understand. Protect them, but it is time to people back to work!

The damage that will be done to America the longer this goes on will be felt for many, many years to come. With every week that passes, more and more businesses will never reopen. Their families will lose everything, and that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

We are but weeks away from a full-on depression, and that will destroy far more lives than this virus ever could.

It's time to open up our businesses. We must open business now, WITH PRECAUTIONS, e.g. social distancing, masks, the use of common sense, etc.

It's time to open up our parks and beaches. You can walk on the road parallel to the beach but you cannot walk on the beach itself. You can walk on the sidewalks and streets bordering the city parks but you can’t walk in the parks.

It is time to put people back to work and back to having some semblance of a ”normal” life!

We understand that the Stay-at-Home Orders come from the State of Florida, Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton. We understand that the Boca Raton City Council cannot by itself open Boca Raton for business.  

However, we ask the Boca Raton City Council, as our elected representatives, to lead the effort and set the example to open up for business.