Mayor Marty Walsh announced Friday that all major events in Boston are cancelled for the summer, although some businesses and venues statewide are starting to open in stages, including golf courses. Now, more local business owners are pushing to be among the first to get the green light to open.
One such man is David Andelman, who owns the Mendon Twin Drive-In movie theatre and has petitioned Governor Baker for permission to re-open.
“The standard seems to be six foot distance, and a drive-in is tailor-made to maintain six foot distance,” Andelman told Emily Rooney on Greater Boston Friday. “You don’t even have to get out of your car if you don’t want to.”
He said that the Twin Drive-In had physically blocked off spaces to establish that distance between its parking spots and had sanitized the premises. He argued the place was therefore about as safe as — or safer than — other types of places that are open, like subway stations and golf courses.
“The issue is that each individual business owner shouldn’t have the burden of doing what he’s done,” said NECN political commentator and co-publisher of Bay Windows, Sue O’Connell. “It should be coming from the governor’s office … ‘These are the requirements that you would need to meet as a business owner in order to open up to the public.’ That way you don’t have this patchwork across the state.”
