Participate in Mayor's Webinar Today at 2pm about Vax Checks at Restaurants & Other Businesses
Click Here to Register: City of Chicago :: Business Education
Questions for Mayor Lightfoot about Sudden Mandatory Vax-Checks Policy
•What are fines for failing to comply? The Mayor's order cites Section 2-112-340 which says fines up to $500/day. But CBS News Chicago says fines up to $10,000/day. The Mayor's website should show this information exactly, but it does not.
•When will the Mayor's vax-checks policy end? If the Mayor wants an open-ended policy until Chicago's COVID crisis dies down, this is unacceptable. Restaurants can't be forced - - again - - to bear the brunt of the COVID crisis without official government evidence to justify this unique treatment. It's unfair to portray restaurants as COVID hot spots and scare away customers without official government contact-tracing evidence! Restaurants need to know exactly why the Mayor's policy was enacted and how/when it will end.
•What is the Mayor doing to get more people vaccinated in Chicago zip codes where less than 70% of people are vaccinated? This is where Chicago's COVID problem lies, not with restaurant diners! Today, Chicago's vax rate is 73%, well behind other cities and short of the Mayor's goal of 77% by end of 2021. The Mayor and Aldermen received $1.9 billion federal funds to get people vaccinated and deal with COVID. Instead, they want to use $1 billion to cover up their City Hall gross overspending through 2023. Better, the Mayor and Aldermen could hold weekly cash lotteries in vax-lagging neighborhoods to boost vaccines. Also, they could use COVID funds to fight crime, which is out of control in Chicago with a 13-year-old boy being killed yesterday.
•Will the Mayor issue immediate letters to U.S. Senators Duckworth and Durbin of Illinois, insisting that they allocate $60 billion more for federal restaurant grants? Thousands of Chicago restaurants - - and 278,000 across America - - applied for survival funds in May 2021. Most applicants received $0, and restaurants need these funds urgently, especially to comply with vax-checks orders by Lightfoot and other mayors. The Biden Administration and all U.S. Senators should be ashamed. They gave $60 billion to the airlines, but gave only $29 billion to restaurants, despite restaurantsproviding far more businesses and jobs. Ultimately, only 101,000 restaurants received grants, and 177,000 others got nothing. No government explanation was given for how funds were disbursed, and the list of restaurants that applied is being withheld by the government. This is a national scandal, and our Coalition formed the United States Restaurants Coalition (www.unitedstatesrestaurants.org) to solve this issue. Will Lightfoot pressure Biden, Duckworth and Durbin to release $60 billion more for restaurants?
Our Coalition urges everyone to get vaccinated and boosted. We honor the vast majority of restaurants who have followed CDC guidelines and protected customers and employees alike. For more information:
Roger Romanelli, Coordinator/Chicago Restaurants Coalition & Executive Director/Fulton Market Association
E: roger@fultonmarketchicago.org
C: (773) 531-6370
917 W. Washington Blvd. #225 Chicago IL 60607
FMA is a non-profit community-based economic development agency that coordinates CRC.
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