A Step Toward Normal, but…

Opinion

 

Going back a full year now, when Gov. Charlie Baker first started reopening this state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has taken a slow (some would say too slow) and cautious (many would say overly cautious) approach to the process.

And this pattern continues with his recent announcement that restrictions on many types of gatherings and businesses will be eased later this month, and that they will be lifted completely on Aug. 1.

From a glass-half-full perspective, this is the news all those in the business community have been waiting for — movement back to something approaching normal when it comes to where people can go and what they can do. In the class-half-empty category, ‘normal’ is coming to other states much sooner.

Indeed, many states (Florida and Texas have led the way) have been fully open for some time now. And in the Northeast, states like New Hampshire have lifted most, if not all, restrictions and are fully open for business. Even New York, which has been as slow and cautious as Massachusetts, will fully reopen for business on July 1.

While, in many respects, cautious is good, we hope the governor will look at the data and the trends when it cases to cases, hospitalizations, and vaccinations, and move up his timetable for fully reopening Massachusetts. For many businesses, especially those in the tourism and hospitality sector, summer is their time to shine. Losing another full month or more when other neighboring states are wide open is just one more heavy burden to bear.

Meanwhile, for restaurants, yes, the announced easing of restrictions will help, but they are still handicapped by the rules in place at a time when many are still struggling to keep the doors open.

But … getting back to the glass being half-full, businesses in Western Mass. can now clearly see a light at the end of the tunnel. They can see ‘normal’ — and not with a telescope. It’s right around the corner.

We can see a normal Big E coming in September. We can see tourists flocking back here for foliage season. We can see businesses in the area’s many college towns — the hotels, restaurants, and bars — turning back the clock to 2019. We can see the Thunderbirds playing to a packed house at the MassMutual Center. We can see the Bright Nights Ball and a host of other events in MGM’s ballrooms.

It’s a nice picture, and it won’t come together as easily as we might like. We have to hope people find the confidence to go back out and do all the things they did before COVID altered the landscape; recent evidence suggests they will. And businesses have to hope they can find the hired help — and everything else they need, from chicken to lumber to steel — to accommodate the surge in business they hope is coming their way, or is already here.

Aug. 1 is still more than two and a half months away. That’s an eternity for struggling businesses. We’re hoping that ‘normal’ might come sooner — and the governor says he might adjust his timetable if there is enough science to warrant it) — but at least we can now see it on the horizon.