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[Simon now says it won’t reopen the malls. Click here.]
* Tim Moran at the Patch…
The Orland Square Mall, which has been closed since March 18 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, is slated to reopen on May 31. The Simon Property Group that owns the mall announced this week their plan to open all their Illinois mall properties on that date.
Other Simon shopping centers scheduled to reopen on May 31 include Chicago Premium Outlets, Gurnee Mills, White Oaks Mall in Springfield and Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. […]
In its reopening announcement, Simon outlined safety protocols it is taking with each mall reopening, including preemptive employee screening for coronavirus, requirements that all employees wear masks and frequently wash their hands. Employees that fail health screenings will be sent home. […]
Malls will implement occupancy limits and use “traffic measuring technologies” to ensure that occupancy does not exceed one person per 50 square feet of space, Simon said, adding, “As needed, we will restrict the number of open entrances to the property while complying with local fire code requirements, and have queuing protocols in place to manage traffic. Each tenant will be responsible for managing to targets set by state or local authorities for their leased spaces.”
It looks like they’re interpreting the EO to apply to individual stores, not the mall itself.
* The governor was asked about the mall in Orland Park today…
Again, indoor venues with hundreds and hundreds of people who will be walking together,that’s an extraordinarily difficult circumstance under the epidemiological recommendations here. So, that’s something that will have to happen over the course of months and not in the immediate next phase.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:12 pm
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Unless there are real consequences to violating the executive order, he might as well withdraw it. Literally a pox on everyone’s house. The governor and mayor of Chicago try reasoning and logic. Too many people are neither reasonable nor logical. Put teeth into orders or forget it
Comment by DuPage Saint Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:24 pm
Agreed DuPage Saint. In Central Illinois you wouldn’t even know the stay at home orders were still in place. The local bar did finally get a cease and desist from the liquor commission but other than that everything is open.
Comment by tea_and_honey Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:38 pm
People have to wake up. The mall as we know it should be dead. Movie theaters will be be dead. Restaurants will be radically different. Forget your intimate eats.
Comment by Precinct Captain Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:39 pm
You go ahead and open…and those employees who become sick because of your greed? Pay benefit time since you DON’T now.
Me? I’m going to keep online shopping…I have a computer and wi-fi…and I know how to use them!
Comment by Union Thug Gramma Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:43 pm
I’m amazed at how selfish, lazy, and/or clueless people are. Just unreal.
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:44 pm
So they’re going to restrict the entrances — which means even LESS fresh air at Woodfield? Oh brother…
Comment by Soccermom Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 4:49 pm
The business community is just tired of the goal posts being moved, and the requirements becoming unachievable. I can see their point
Comment by Retired Educator Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:08 pm
===The business community is just tired of the goal posts being moved, and the requirements becoming unachievable. I can see their point===
This is retail REITs grasping for revenue since their leases capture store sales for income.
Comment by njt Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:18 pm
“The business community is just tired of the goal posts being moved, and the requirements becoming unachievable.”
And the health of their employees and customers and their families be damned.
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:20 pm
Are we really worried there will be people at the malls? Malls were empty before the pandemic. Sn/
Comment by Frank talks Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:25 pm
If you are aware of the Hong Kong story, you know that had the governor simply required face coverings from the beginning the economy would not have had to be destroyed and thousands of people would not have lost their lives. So we see that the measures that were taken have decimated the economy and still cost lives. Despite the stay home order, new cases are increasing and many, many people who obeyed all the rules got sick and had to be hospitalized or died. So businesses are rightly frustrated at the incompetence of government. I don’t blame them.
Comment by Captain Obvious Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:28 pm
- Captain Obvious -
Nothing like the gift of 20/20 hindsight. Of course, if Pritzker had dictated/ordered everyone to wear face masks from the beginning, everyone would have complied without question. lol
Comment by Froganon Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:34 pm
I would think yo are going to see a lot more of this in the upcoming weeks. Bills have to be paid, and unlike the Governor, I don’t have a couple billion dollars to fall back on. I either open in the near future, or I close my shop for good. We have many years of sweat equity in our business, as well as a rather large financial investment. We can do it safely, but we are not being allowed the option.
Comment by Retired Educator Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:35 pm
=== As needed, we will restrict the number of open entrances to the property while complying with local fire code requirements,====
We could see this working if proper protocols are followed. But I have my doubt that will be followed. The fact they want to limit entrances just helps them to cut costs on monitoring the number of people. The more entrances and exits are better so there are less people passing each other at those points. And if there are lines there are less people together if you have multiple entrances.
Comment by Been There Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:42 pm
I wish that Pritzker would do more to push local law enforcement and mayors to enforce his EO. This piecemeal approach of local officials refusing to enforce the EO, will render his entire plan ineffective.
What lever does he have over the local officials to enforce the EO? He needs to start using it.
Comment by Huh? Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 5:44 pm
===I would think yo are going to see a lot more of this in the upcoming weeks. Bills have to be paid, and unlike the Governor, I don’t have a couple billion dollars to fall back on. I either open in the near future, or I close my shop for good. We have many years of sweat equity in our business, as well as a rather large financial investment. We can do it safely, but we are not being allowed the option.===
How will you know if an asymptomatic carrier comes into your business? How will you know if you yourself become asymptomatic? How will your business fare if it becomes known that you helped spread COVID?
Comment by Graduated College Student Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:04 pm
The legislature needs to act and act now. We are rapidly losing the rule of law everywhere, Illinois has been saner than most but the looniness is exponentially rising.
I’ve been thankful Pritzker is governor throughout this crisis, but it’s time for hime to get some major back-up by the super-majorities in our legislature.
Comment by northsider (the original) Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:11 pm
I wonder whether the insurers of these businesses are on board with opening up in violation of an executive order
Comment by pc Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:19 pm
I wouldn’t call this the Governor moving the goalposts but the measures not working as well as they could. Hindsight is 20/20 but it certainly seems like the efforts across the US should have been more stringent in the beginning. Also you can blame the minority who refuse to do the sensible thing and abide by the social distancing guidelines.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/us/us-social-distancing-coronavirus/index.html
Comment by MyTwoCents Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:29 pm
I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of this as it gets harder and harder for business owners to pay expenses with no income. Those busisnesses deemed non-essential have had there property taken without compensation from the government. The government has every right to take property for the greater good, but it has to compensate the owner when it does so. There is a process laid out for this in Emergency Management Agency Act, and it hasn’t been followed. I’m suprised I haven’t heard about any non-essential businesses filing lawsuits claiming that the executive order is a temporary regulatory taking.
Comment by Riverside Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:33 pm
“I wish that Pritzker would do more to push local law enforcement and mayors to enforce his EO.”
Local control and all That.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 6:43 pm
=Those busisnesses deemed non-essential have had there property taken without compensation from the government..=
Perhaps you could cite the businesses that have been taken and the case law establishing that responding to a global pandemic is tantamount to taking a business.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 7:34 pm
I work in South Loop- people stopped caring about the EO and stay at home order about 2 weeks ago. First 6 weeks it was like a ghost town. Any ideas about enforcing these orders is a pipe dream. JB has started to loose some of his initial supporters. People want to be out- they see other states and country’s regaining a sense of normal life.
Comment by Jeff Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 7:59 pm
@Pundent - Take a look at 20 ILCS 3305/7(4) and let me know where it excludes global pandemics. Businesses haven’t been taken, but their profits have been. The government has also taken a “lesser specified interest” in the real property of these businesses by barring customers from entering and other land use prohibitions.
Comment by Riverside Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 8:16 pm
Hindsight? Was it a secret what Hong Kong did? Nope. The information was out there. And if given a choice between wearing a face covering with no other restrictions or cratering the economy while losing your job and your freedoms, I think an overwhelming majority would have been willing to comply. Jay Bob chose to wait and take what has amounted to wholly destructive but half effective measures. He owns that and the destruction resulting from those decisions. He can say “if only I had known” but the fact is his health department should have known about how other governments were handling the virus.
Sweden, for example, did not even require face coverings while leaving their economy open, and have not suffered any worse health effects than Illinois.
Comment by Captain Obvious Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 8:58 pm
=== He owns that and the destruction resulting from those decisions===
Meh.
If all that bloviating is remotely true, Trump will get shellacked then in November.
“One election at a time”
Plus, polling is with the governor and not POTUS… so there’s that too.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 9:01 pm
=Businesses haven’t been taken, but their profits have been.=
By a virus not the government. But by all means go forth and find an attorney willing to take on this noble cause.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 9:14 pm
The Galesburg Mayor John Pritchard is doing it right. He has written the Governor with proposed changes. Got on the radio station to explain his proposal. But when asked if he would flaunt the Governor’s order, he rejected the idea. That is the difference between a leader and the political hack mayors in other communities. We all signed the political contract - the fine print says that you give up some liberties for the common good.
Comment by Jeremy Karliin Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 9:48 pm
With the new takeout regulations there is hardly anything fully closed in Galesburg. ….Also it’s part of 2 outbreaks. One at Smithfield in Monmouth and one at the Prison. The infections rate in Monmouth is about the same as Chicago.
Comment by Not a Billionaire Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 10:38 pm
Sweden is smaller than Illinois has a national health system and more deaths than Illinois. They still got the economic collapse too.
Comment by Not a Billionaire Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 10:41 pm