Chicago Alderman Says Pritzker's Indoor Dining Ban Moves Partiers To Hotels

Chicago Alderman Brendan Reilly believes that the indoor dining ban on the city’s restaurants is ushering partygoers to hotels and Airbnbs.

Gov. J.B. Pritker implemented “resurgence mitigation” efforts in the region that includes Chicago in response to its climbing COVID-19 hospitalizations and positivity rates.

That includes a ban on indoor dining, and he said he expects the mitigations to remain in place for at least two to three weeks, until the COVID-19 positivity rate and hospitalizations decline.

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced more than 12,600 cases of coronavirus statewide on Wednesday (November 11).

“Closing all indoor dining for restaurants, among the most highly regulated in terms of health and safety, will force people into less controlled, private gatherings with no safety precautions – resulting in the exact opposite of slowing the spread of COVID-19,” the Illinois Restaurant Association wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday (November 10). “Restaurants in Illinois are being unjustly singled out. We have done everything asked of us, and more. No one operates more safely. We must be allowed to serve indoors in some capacity. Otherwise, our state's largest private sector employer will be pushed to the brink of permanent devastation.”

Reilly put Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Rosa Escareno on the spot about the governor’s indoor dining ban, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

“We are incentivizing the use of hotel rooms downtown for these big parties,” Reilly said. “Hotel rates are cheap. Lots of kids are coming down here and renting out these hotel rooms on the weekends. And these aren’t parties of five or six people. We’re talking 60, 70, 80 people. These are in licensed hotels.”

“Never mind the private residence parties being thrown,” he continued. “Huge groups. Totally unregulated. No masks. No distancing. Spreader events.”

Escareno explained that officials are working with the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association plans to implement safety measures, according to the Sun-Times. The association’s president said they’re doing as much as they can do while minding anti-discrimination policies.

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