Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday the city is on track to the third phase of reopening the city by early June, though she said reopening the lakefront could still be a ways away.
That prediction sees the city transition from phase two, which entails city residents staying home, to the “cautiously reopen” phase, which will still require strict physical distancing but allow for some sectors of the economy to start reopening. But Lightfoot did not provide a specific date on when that could begin.
“The reason that we can’t give a precise date is because we’re focused on the public health data, and we’re going to be dictated by that,” she said. “ ... I can’t give you a magic day as I sit here now, as much as I would love to. We just don’t know yet.”
She described the reopening process as similar to “turning a dimmer switch, not flipping a light switch” and said it will be guided by public health data.
Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said reopening the city is based on a decline in new cases and hospitalizations, including in hard-hit African American and Latino communities. Hospital and testing capacity are now near city benchmarks and progress on contact tracing were also part of the city’s decision to begin to move to the next phase of reopening.
Arwady still urged people to wear cloth face coverings or masks and to keep at least six feet of distance between themselves and others when out.
Specific guidelines will be released next week and will include details on how businesses can maintain safe working spaces and conditions.
Businesses that are allowed to reopen at limited capacity in early June include restaurants and coffee shops on outdoor patios; hair and nail salons and barber shops; childcare centers; park facilities; libraries; office-based jobs; and hotels and other lodging.
Lightfoot said she thinks the state has “to open up the opportunity for indoor dining with, again some very tight controls,” to help businesses that are “starving.” She and her team have discussed that idea with Gov. J. B. Pritzker, whose own plans for reopening the state included struggling bars and restaurants opening their patios on a limited basis at the end of May.
“Many of them will not survive unless we throw them a lifeline and I don’t think it’s enough to just say outdoor dining in Chicago,” Lightfoot said. “It’s going to rain, and then what? And no one can plan, and certainly not plan to have workers there and plan to buy food and all the other things that are important, and take time and money and investment if it’s going to be subject to the vagaries of Mother Nature. So I think that there’s a way in which we can do this safely and I look forward to continuing that discussion.”
The lakefront is among a list of places that could reopen later in phase three, if proper safety measures can be put in place though the “playpen,” which is north of Navy Pier and where many boaters party while on Lake Michigan, will remain closed for the duration of the summer.
While she assured Chicago residents the lakefront won’t be closed all summer, the mayor said figuring out plans its reopening is “complicated.”
“The lakefront is our jewel, it’s our treasure, but what we know is that people flock en masse to the lakefront,” Lightfoot said. “So when we talk about opening up golf courses, particularly those on the lakefront, then why wouldn’t we open the lakefront, and then why not the beaches, and then why not all the boating — so we’re going to do this in a phased, smart way. The lakefront will open, but we have more work to do to make sure that we can open it up in a safe way.”
Other activities on that list are summer and youth programs and activities, religious services, gyms, museums and limited capacity outdoor performances.
An announcement on Lollapalooza and other large outdoor festivals will be made next week, Lightfoot said. The coronavirus is “here, it remains here, it remains deadly,” Lightfoot said.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to mitigate the risk,” Lightfoot said. “Opening up is not without risk — it is with risk —we expect that there’s going to be some case surge, but we’ve got to do everything that we can to minimize that from happening.”
