Lincoln Park Zoo will remain free, but with reservations required for certain time slots to avoid having too many people descending on the gate at the same time, exceeding the 100-person capacity limit.
Gyms will be open, but face masks will be required and workout equipment will either be six feet apart — or, in smaller facilities, separated by clear plastic screens. Saunas and showers will remain closed.
Movie theaters, as well as other heaters and live performance venues can open to audiences of 50 or fewer, but all but the smallest theaters are likely to remain closed because production costs will far exceed the gate. Standing-room-only live music venues will remain closed — and likely will be the last to reopen.
That’s just a snapshot of what will happen Friday, as Chicago moves into Phase 4 of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to cautiously reopen the Chicago economy.
The state also is moving into its Phase 4 on Friday.The city guidelines generally follow the state rules, though the state’s capacity restrictions are looser in some areas.
For instance, the state is allowing outdoor sports to resume with no more than 20% of seating capacity, and concessions allowed with restrictions. In Chicago, however, spectator sports will remain shut down, as well as conventions.
Lightfoot on Monday told reporters that Chicago’s guidelines are different because the city is an air hub, and its population is much denser. Caution is dictated because, the mayor said, a resurgence in cases is “more than a risk. It’s a very real possibility.” Social distancing, hand hygiene and face masks remain essential, Lightfoot said.
Quoting his boss, Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development, calls it “continuing to dial up the dimmer switch every so cautiously.” He expects another 200,000 Chicagoans to return to work, joining roughly 130,000 that did so under Phase 3. That’s still a far cry from Chicago’s “base of 1.4 million” employees before the stay-at-home shutdown triggered by the coronavirus.
Indoor seating in bars and restaurants, museums and zoos, live performance venues, gyms and summer camps are among the places that will be opening in Phase 4.
Still, even with the go-ahead to reopening to indoor dining at 25% capacity, some restaurant employees have complained they “don’t feel safe” returning to work.
Erick Williams of Virtue restaurant, 1462 E. 53rd St. in Hyde Park, said he firmly believes some employees are just saying that because they can “sit at home” and make “the same money” by collecting unemployment benefits.
Williams said he is absolutely committed to keeping his employees safe by taking and logging their temperature, purchasing personal protective equipment for employees, measuring the distance between tables and distributing face masks to guests who show up without masks and taking their temperature before they come into contact with his employees.
Other indoor events will be limited to no more than 50 people or 25% capacity, whichever is less. Outdoor venues will be limited to 100 people. And face masks and social distancing will be required.
Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the cautious reopening is possible because the seven-day average number of new cases of COVID-19 in Chicago has dropped to 167 cases a day. That puts the city in the “moderate-high risk,” using national standards.
“There’s a 15 percent chance that, in any gathering of 50 people, there will be someone with COVID-19, using a random selection of Chicagoans. And if you have a gathering of 100 people, there will be a 30 percent chance that someone at that gathering will have COVID-19. That’s when we’re at the moderate-to-high incidence,” Arwady said.
“As soon as we get down to a moderate incidence level — which for Chicago means fewer than 100 new cases-per-day — that’s when we’ll be able to move ahead and be thinking about expanding those capacity restrictions. So moving from 25 percent to 50 percent, for example. Moving from indoor gatherings of 50 people to 100…That really could happen just in the space of the next few weeks.”
Pointing to the alarming spikes in other states that have reopened without caution, Mayekar said the goal is to “take small step incrementally so we don’t have to take large steps backward.”
On Monday, Mayekar, Arwady, Chicago Park District Superintendent Mike Kelley and Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Rosa Escareno hosted a conference call with City Hall reporters to talk about the move into Phase 4.
They were joined by: Erick Williams, owner and executive chief of Virtue Restaurant; Dr. Megan Ross, director of Lincoln Park Zoo; Nora Gainer, director of partnerships and tourism for the Art Institute of Chicago; Tanya Triche Dawood, vice-president and general counsel of the Il. Retail Merchants Association and Kevin Cary, the founder of Begyle Brewery who serves as president of the Il. Craft Brewers Guild.
Folllowing are some of the reopening details:
Gyms
After being confined to outdoor classes and one-on-one training in Phase 3, health clubs, gyms and fitness studios will be authorized to open on Friday at 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is less. But, because of the high risk of transmission during indoor exercise, sweating patrons will be required to wear face masks during workouts and classes. Exercise equipment will be 6 feet apart. In smaller places where there is less room, at least 3 feet is OK, but with an “impermeable barrier between equipment,” Triche Dawood said. Indoor classes will be limited to 50 people with 6 feet of social distance inbetween and “visual cues to show that,” presumably with floor markings. Salons, spas and restaurant located inside health clubs can reopen, but must follow guidelines for those industries. Locker rooms, showers, saunas and steam rooms must remain closed.
“We have seen outbreaks and spread in countries that have had a reopening before us specifically linked to fitness clubs and gyms. As people are exercising, that is a stronger exhalation, if you will, than just regular talking. So it is a somewhat hostile setting,” Arwady said, explaining the face mask requirement.
Zoos and museums
Reservations will not be required at the Art Institute, but “online booking in advance will be highly recommended,” Gainer.
Lincoln Park Zoo will remain free, but reservations for a specific time slot will be required.
“We’re very excited about welcoming all of Chicago back to the zoo, but we are gonna require reservations to ensure that we are meeting that capacity number, so people don’t come to the gate and find that we’re at the capacity,” Ross said.
Reservations can be made online at lpzoo.org, Ross said, “so that we can ensure that we are maintaining those capacity numbers.”
Live performance venues
Just because indoor theaters can reopen only to 25% capacity audiences, with a maximum of 50, doesn’t mean that they will. In fact, Claire Rice, executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois, all but predicted smaller venues will be the only ones that reopen.
Rice said she expects the return of arts in general and theater in particular to be a “very gradual process for our sector.” She described Phase 4 as a “baby step in a longer game” of reopening.
“We’re starting very small. For some venues, the economic viability given the workforce demands and the planning demands for production means that they likely won’t open until later in Phase 4,” Rice said.
“The smaller folks can be a little more nimble with social distancing. We’re talking about timed entry. There are lots of considerations that we’ve looked at in terms of other models across the globe in terms for folks who have started reopening slowly and safely. As safely as possible. That’s what we’ll be experimenting with.”
Rice said she is “very appreciative” that the Department of Public Health is willing to “look frequently at the metrics to try to increase that capacity over time.”
“That’s gonna be particularly important for our mid-size and larger venues that probably won’t be able to reopen, given the business realities, at the beginning of Phase 4,” she said.
Indoor concert venues
Most of these clubs are standing-room-only, with music lovers packed together like sardines. That’s why they must remain closed, even as Chicago tip-toes into Phase 4.
“Independent venues and a lot of the concert venues or clubs where you have to stand — those are more challenging settings. There’s always that fear in that setting that they were the first to close and will be the last to reopen,” Mayekar said.
“That’s why ... we supported the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund to help those venues. We’re gonna continue to try to provide more relief for those venues and work night and day to try to determine the right protocol to get them open. But, some of those more independent venues” that are all standing-only “will be more challenging from a health perspective.”
Playgrounds
Kelly said other cities have reopened their playgrounds by “disinfecting them every hour,” but that’s simply impossible to do with 600 Park District playgrounds. Arwady said the opportunity for “children to mix” at playgrounds is a “significant concern” and she doesn’t want to jeopardize the on-time opening of Chicago Public Schools this fall by opening playgrounds prematurely.
Contributing: Tina Sfondeles
