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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and as we get ready to take calls from restaurant workers or owners, theater workers or owners, and gym and fitness center workers or owners navigating yesterday's day one of enforcing, the city enforcing these COVID vaccine requirement rules to get into your places, I'll throw in one other wrinkle here, which is I wonder if we can hear from folks from different kinds of neighborhoods where vaccination rates are different.
Enforcing a vaccine mandate for indoor dining in a neighborhood like Chelsea, where some 90% of residents, we're told, are at least partially vaccinated might be a lot easier than it would be in maybe Borough Park where we see the number is only like 45%. There are many, many neighborhoods of different kinds we could throw into that equation.
If you work in a restaurant, in a neighborhood where vaccination rates are relatively low, have you been told to deal with a vaccine mandate for getting into your place in a certain way? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. Mamadou in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mamadou. Thanks for calling up.
Mamadou: Hi. Oh my god, Brian, I am such a big fan. A longtime listener and recently, I was fortunate enough to open up this place in Brooklyn [unintelligible 00:01:44] to be exact. Sorry, I'm on road [unintelligible 00:01:48] I have to pull over. I'm just calling in regards to this mandate that is being put on small businesses or working businesses to be exact.
I don't think it's been well thought of. I am all for being vaccinated and preventing the disease from spreading, but what's being put on smaller businesses like mine, right now, it's unfair. As I was explaining earlier--
Brian Lehrer: Mamadou, I'm going to-- and forgive me that I'm going to move you from your position on it to what you're actually doing at your restaurant. What did you do yesterday on the first day of supposed enforcement?
Mamadou: I'm sorry, I'm losing you a little bit.
Brian Lehrer: What did you do yesterday on the first day of supposed enforcement? What protocol did you actually impose?
Mamadou: Prior to yesterday, the city was already passing out flyers to be put on the windows, saying that if you're unvaccinated you're not allowed to dine in and, like for example, same topic but just restaurants, in general, have to take on more than what they can handle to make, just to make day to day operation.
Brian Lehrer: Mamadou, you want a shout out-- I need to move on to another caller but if you want to shout out your new restaurant's name, go ahead.
Mamadou: Yes, it's Nurish BK. That's N-U-R-I-S-H. It's at 637 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. Come by and check us out but I thank you so much. I am a longtime listener, and-- [crosstalk]
Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much. I'm really glad you called in and call us again, Mamadou. Thank you and good luck with your place. George in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, George.
George: Hey, Brian. Good morning. Brian?
Brian Lehrer: Yes, we got you, George. Hey, there.
George: Okay. Let me just quickly-- I just had my first inspection yesterday. When the mandate set in, we put tables outside to accommodate the people who don't want to show us their paperwork or aren't vaccinated or whatever. I literally just had an inspector come through about 15, 20 minutes ago and at the door, I had two women just being combative and pushing back, "Why do we have to do this? It's not a democracy anymore," and this and that.
I just pointed to the inspector and I said, "Gentleman is here to either fine me or I follow the rules," and they were just combative about the whole thing. Ironically enough, they walk in and she says, "Yes, we just went through this at Starbucks."
Obviously, this is going to happen wherever you go, why is this the approach that you're taking? Because it isn't fair. I said, "Okay, so it's not fair. I'm trying to accommodate as best we can. We're policing whatever we have to do and the guidelines aren't even set yet." We were asking him questions that he really didn't have an answer to. It's all city agencies because he was a fire inspector.
Brian Lehrer: What's an example of what you asked him that he didn't have an answer to? Do you have one?
George: Well, I asked him, I said, "What do we do for pickups?" Because we do a lot of outgoing. I said, "Are they allowed in as well if they wear a mask? It shouldn't be, it should be outside and so should I set someone outside?" He says, "Well, that would be up to you." Again, it's just like when we started trying to-
Brian Lehrer: It was ambiguous.
George: -figure out what the guidelines were.
Brian Lehrer: How did the inspector deal with those angry patrons?
George: Just a blank stare 1,000 mile. There was no answer to them.
Brian Lehrer: Meaning he left it up to you.
George: He left it up to me to deal with it, yes. At the end of it, he says, "Your job is much harder than mine." That is what he said. Everything was a little-- [crosstalk]
Brian Lehrer: At least he got that part. George, you want to shout out your place?
George: Sure, it's Tasty Diner on Myrtle Avenue corner of Onderdonk and Myrtle, I've been here 45 years.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Good luck with it. Call us again. Alex in Brooklyn, you're here on WNYC. Hi, Alex.
Alex: Hey, how are you doing, Brian? Longtime first time. I wanted to call and just say that I work in a restaurant, I was working back of house and front of house doing prep cooking and back of house and then transitioning to front of house and all the front of house is vaccinated but the main prep cook is not interested in being vaccinated. He's a super high-level performer. He's a really awesome guy, super friendly, but not interested in getting vaccinated and the owners are in a really tough position because the pool of labor is so shallow for really high-skilled workers.
When I talk to my co-worker about his experience during COVID and coming out of COVID, he said people left New York and people died and that really send out the labor pool. The owners of the restaurant that I'm at are really in a tough position as to how they-- They probably assume that they're just going to roll with it and hopefully not get checked on the moment when he's there but it's a real pickle for a lot of restaurant owners, how to navigate the labor shortage and vaccine hesitancy.
Brian Lehrer: I hear the dilemma. I guess we haven't even mentioned that part yet until you brought it up, which is that this is not just for patrons. It's for employees inside. When an inspector comes, they may check your vaccine card and that of this cook or chef you were talking about and everybody else. Right?
Alex: Yes, exactly. I'm sorry, I got interrupted. Could you repeat part of the question?
Brian Lehrer: I was just reflecting the dilemma that you stated there and that we hadn't even mentioned it earlier in this segment. This isn't just for patrons, this is for employees, too. Any of you working there could get carded when an inspector comes?
Alex: I assume so. We're all relatively high in restaurants, so most of our clientele are upper-middle-class white people. We check vaccinations with everybody that walks in, I've only had one crazy person yell at me. I think it was the first day that we put a sign out that said vaccination is required, but outside of that we're assuming everybody's vaccinated. It is this pickle where the one linchpin in the whole operation is not interested in getting vaccinated. I just wanted to share that story.
Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Alex.
Alex: Thanks for everything, Brian, and peace, love, and Brian Lehrer is my favorite T-shirt. Thank you guys, continue to give that away.
Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Thank you very much. Thanks for your call. We just have 30 seconds left. We're going to get Max in Westchester in here, who is a delivery person. Max, what's the delivery person's point of view in 30 seconds? Tell us a story.
Max: I was standing at a restaurant yesterday asking for an order and I saw how two women with baby carriages were just fighting with the restaurant person and I was defending her by saying, "Listen, today's the first day of the vaccination mandate for the restaurant, maybe they should charge you the $3,000 that gets charged to the restaurant but you probably don't have," and then they walked away. We're as affected as the restaurant workers, Brian. By the way, I love your show, longtime listener. [crosstalk]
Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much and make there a second time. Well, we hear the complexities. Day one of enforcement was yesterday, day one on Broadway today for a number of plays. We'll follow up on that later in the week. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
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