Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

[SunriseChampion]

Russians have been suffering since before the Mongols invaded. That‘s why they’re so culturally different from the rest of the Caucasian world. They look like us, but always prefer the strongman despot.

Close, but not quite.

They don't prefer the strongman despot; they are resigned to the strongman despot being the natural way of things.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Abso-effin-lootly! I made that decision a few years ago. Our little band of biker bandits used to vary our road trips between Canada and the US and I finally told them that if they go to the US, take pictures for me.

"Cool story. Send me a postcard."

Yeah, I have effectively banned myself from the US after my last trip there 7 years ago. Between familial ties in the EU and Canada, I'm good. Though, in the case of the US, the place is just too alien to me. I mean socially disturbing in some aspects.

I love travelling, but I don't feel the need to see the world first-hand. It's too ecologicaly destructive and can have all manner of other negative effects. See for example tourist overcrowding and ruination in Barcelona, Venice, Prague, etc.

Also, seeing it all makes the world seem claustrophobic and kills all the mystery and romance of not knowing first-hand.

I think travelling the world is overrated.

 

[AlbertC]

Scenes from the Michigan Capitol earlier today:

Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19 lockdown at Michigan capitol

Police and capitol staff held back protesters – some armed with rifles – attempting to enter floor of legislative chamber

www.theguardian.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1255960323670134786

https://twitter.com/x/status/1255947431717605376

 

[Northern Light]

Scenes from the Michigan Capitol earlier today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1255960323670134786

https://twitter.com/x/status/1255947431717605376

I hit 'like' to appreciate the value of your reporting...............I don't have an emoji appropriate to the nonsense you're reporting.................

Clearly I come down on the side of greater (responsible, and evidence-supported) freedom...............but these nutbars make the case for something else altogether, at least for them.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Tactical drag.

AoD

 

[Northern Light]

A blow by blow account of how things went from bad to worse to complete tragedy at the Pinecrest LTC Home in Bobcaygeon by the Globe and Mail.

No real surprises to me here, but for any of you not familiar w/the story's details; it looks into the facilitie's age/design issues; general pandemic readiness, the failings of their communications w/staff and the community as those of the public health unit.
It also shows, frankly, how ones things starting snowballing there was little that could be done, intervention needed to be earlier. In the end, roughly 1/2 the residents died in a 4-week period.

A postmortem for Pinecrest: How systemic flaws led to tragedy at a Bobcaygeon nursing home

Twenty-nine people died during Ontario’s first major COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care facility. Who were they? How did their chaotic final weeks unfold? The Globe and Mail investigates

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[Jonny5]

Burlington has banned vehicle parades. Most likely from complaints about them popping up all over for any and every reason; birthday's, anniversaries, as a joke, etc...

City of Burlington bans large vehicle parades and processions popularized during pandemic

The City of Burlington says it will not allow vehicle parades and processions of more than five vehicles to continue, saying they violate provincial emergency measures aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.

www.cp24.com

 

[Northern Light]

Today's Covid numbers in Ontario..........good news!

Case growth rate 2.3%, lowest yet.

#in ICU down 8 or 3.4%

#on vents down 6 or 3.3%

Resolved rate is now 65.2%

#in hospital did climb, but the growth rate is down to 1.8%

# of deaths is down too from yesterday;'s 86 to 39 today.

Also, record # of tests 16,532 in 24 hours.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/how-ontario-is-responding-covid-19#section-0

Edit to add, this is the 3rd straight day of more resolved cases than new cases.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Learning from Lithuania: Open-space cafes could save Toronto restaurants

From link.

Toronto has been — in every sense of the word — closed, for over a month now.

Everyone has been scurrying, scrambling, and struggling to adjust to different ways of being, but there’s no doubt that the city’s small business owners have been hit by the ongoing situation in a particularly painful way.

While some spots have moved their operations into the virtual sphere, and others have closed temporarily, early April data showed that nationally, nearly 10% of the country’s restaurants had shuttered for good since the beginning of this ordeal.

Those numbers showed an estimated 800,000 food service jobs had been lost across the country due to the pandemic, with more than 300,000 of those being in Ontario alone.

Restaurants, cafes, artisanal stores, and mom-and-pop shops could be called the thread that holds the fabric of a city together. These places weave themselves through the culture of a space with an integrity that can’t be mirrored (or feigned) by big box stores.

The risk of losing many community-held spaces during this pandemic and its subsequent economic hardship is real and likely. But, if officials look outward for inspiration — north-east and across the Atlantic Ocean, to be exact — they’ll see an example of the sort of simple action that could serve as a saviour.

Earlier this week, Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, announced that the city is set to become “one giant outdoor cafe.” The municipality plans to take their restaurants into the city’s public squares, plazas, and streets, creating a sprawling space dedicated to cuisine.

“Nearby cafés will be able to set up outdoor tables free of charge this season and thus conduct their activities during quarantine. Just open up, work, retain jobs, and keep Vilnius alive,” the city’s Mayor, Remigijus Šimašius, declared, following the government’s announcement about easing quarantine restrictions.

“Of course, the top priority remains safety for all.”

Considering wide-open squares and outdoor plazas aren’t aplenty in downtown Toronto, implementing an initiative like this one on home soil would look different. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done.

In fact, there are several convincing arguments for why it’s necessary.

“Losing our main street and neighbourhood cafes, and locally-accessed restaurants, entrepreneurs, and communities is an incredible cost to our neighbourhoods and societies at large,” says Jennifer Keesmaat, CEO of The Keesmaat Group, and former chief city planner for Toronto.

“Using public space in a fundamentally different way is what’s so profound about what [Vilnius] is proposing.”

She explains that while it won’t look the same as it does in Lithuania, in a city, with streets and grids, there’s no reason public spaces and sidewalks can’t be adapted to accommodate an initiative like this one.

“There are lots of roadways that are under-utilized right now,” Keesmaat tells Daily Hive, “and it’s critical to note, we know we’ll be going into a recovery. An in-between phase, where we’re reintegrating, but not totally. We’ll still need physically distancing.”

As we move into this transition, the vulnerable parts of the city must be considered critically and, Keesmaat said, that quickly zeroes in on cafes and small street restaurants. Vulnerable, and simultaneously spaces that, she emphasizes, we need at the neighbourhood scale.

But everything — even a necessity — has a cost. To make a sudden and major adjustment to the way a city uses its sidewalks and streets, in the middle of a global pandemic, no less, seems like a proposal worthy of a hefty risk assessment.

“I would flip it around,” Keesmaat counters, highlighting instead the costs of not taking this sort of action. The huge risk, she says, lies in both the time it takes for a plan to be organized, and in letting business owners know that a solution is coming.

“Many are right on the edge deciding whether to shutter or hang in. We need to have a strategy in place, and a plan, and a timeline, to give them some hope,” she says. “There is an incredible cost to cities and societies. There is incredible damage if we lose walkable urbanism.”

And really, she explains, the transition wouldn’t ask that much of the municipality, save for political will. There is no redesign necessary, no changes to infrastructure — instead, the shift will be in how the spaces that already exist are approached and experienced.

“Right now, we have rules,” she says. “We don’t let [businesses] use the sidewalk, we assume roads are just for cars… but our roadways should be used to best serve public interest. Is there a reason a laneway can’t be taken over?”

She stresses that there’s no need for overregulation, and that there isn’t even a necessity for “a shovel in the ground.” Even the messaging that would surround the new initiative is one that Keesmaat says, probably, business-owners would eagerly jump on, given the chance.

“Owners would create [signage] themselves if the city empowered them to do that.”

With every major step taken within a city’s sphere, there’s an integral player that helps to determine the success of a movement: the people, as a collective. But, Keesmaat guesses, Torontonians won’t present as a barrier to an initiative like this one.

“The city and the society is actually founded on trust. There are a multitude of things we do every day that are based on trust. You can’t have the city without it,” she explains, noting though, with a laugh, that behavioural science isn’t her field.

Of course, she says, there will be outliers. But those anomalies will always exist, “with or without a pandemic.” All in all, she believes if guidelines aren’t muddy, people are likely to follow them.

“We built the city on trust and we need to continue to plan our city based on the best of what’s in us. I think the worst of our behaviours are the outlier behaviours, not the majority, in my experience.”

There are details that would need to be worked through, as with all plans of action, if Toronto opted to follow Vilnius’ lead. One, Keesmaat says, is that individuals working in restaurants should be tested for the virus before consistently facing the public.

Ultimately, she explains, there are multiple social objectives. The overarching ones are public health, and public safety.

“But, the other objectives still matter, and they matter a lot.”

What this situation asks of our city is to meet those top objectives, without letting what lies beneath them fall to the wayside.

“Let’s flip around how we use the infrastructure of the city,” Keesmaat says, “so we can protect the things that matter.”

Just make sure the restaurants will be able to get their (gloved) hands on a good supply of disinfectant wipes, to be used between orders.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Vilnius Set to Become One Giant Outdoor Café: Municipality Shares Public Spaces with Restaurants

From link.

Vilnius cafes reopened. Photo by Saulius Ziura

Have you ever seen an outdoor café sprawled across an entire city? You just might see one in Vilnius, especially with the city declaring that it’s taking a step further in helping the cafés and restaurants, which have been allowed to reopen this week as part of Lithuania‘s gradual exit from coronavirus lockdown.

Vilnius has experienced a gastronomic boom in recent years while also trending as an intriguing travel destination for foodies hungry for something new. Culinary experiences like food halls and markets, street food stalls and food trucks, craft beer bars and high-end restaurants have become part of the city‘s identity for locals and visitors alike. Therefore, helping this industry in difficult times is among the city’s priorities amid relaxed lockdown rules.

According to Lithuania’s Health Ministry, cafés and restaurants that choose to recommence operations must follow strict physical distancing rules and safety measures. Seating is only allowed outdoors, and clients seated at different tables must be at least two metres apart.

Strict safety requirements, combined with the narrow streets of Vilnius’ UNESCO-listed Old Town – which can often only host a couple of tables per establishment – have made restaurant, café and bar owners pessimistic about the prospects of reopening.

However, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius responded to these doubts directly with a support package from the city. “Plazas, squares, and streets – nearby cafés will be able to set up outdoor tables free of charge this season and thus conduct their activities during quarantine. Just open up, work, retain jobs and keep Vilnius alive,“ Mayor Šimašius said on 24 April, the day after the government announced the easing of quarantine restrictions. “Of course, the top priority remains safety for all,” he added.

Vilnius’ public spaces – which until now have rarely been used for outdoor eating, such as the city‘s iconic Cathedral Square – are now open for this activity to support the city’s restaurants going through difficult times. Currently, 18 public spaces have been put on offer, with the possibility to add more in the near future.

The announcement was met with enthusiasm, both from café owners and citizens of Vilnius, who are longing to return to their favourite cafés after weeks of lockdown.

“Vilnius’ offer to help our cafés and restaurants came just in time,” says Evada Šiškauskienė, Head of the Lithuanian Association of Hotels and Restaurants. “This additional space will help them accommodate more visitors and bring life back to the city streets without violating security requirements.”

As of today, more than 162 cafés, bars and restaurants have applied to inhabit the city’s public spaces with outdoor seating.

The City of Vilnius has come up with another initiative that will end up benefiting local restaurants. In celebration of Lithuania’s National Day of Medical Workers on 27 April, the municipality decided to thank its medical staff by giving them some €400,000 worth of restaurant vouchers, which they can use at restaurants across the city. The gesture serves as a big thank you for their tireless work while bringing even more business to the city’s restaurants, many of which have been severely affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

Spread out Toronto outdoor restaurant tables into the public spaces WITHOUT the ridiculous barriers Ontario demands to separate the public from the drinking patrons.

Instead of this...

From link. Remove the barriers and spread out the tables onto the sidewalks and even the roadway. Ontario did get get of the dog ban (see link).

 

[vic]

When I was in Vilnius in 2009, there was a a cafe/restaurant that was demonstrating for the right to seat people outside. E.g. the second sign from the left says, "Living people could sit here". Guess they're finally getting their wish.

 

[Northern Light]

Ontario is every so slightly re-opening, beginning this coming Monday, May 4th.

Mostly very low-risk businesses, and mitigation practices are required.

 

[picard102]

Remove the barriers and spread out the tables onto the sidewalks and even the roadway.

No thanks. People don't need to be weaving in and out of tables to get somewhere.

 

[W. K. Lis]

No thanks. People don't need to be weaving in and out of tables to get somewhere.

As long as the passing pedestrians don't weave, I'm fine.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I finally took the motorcycle out for its first run of the season. 150 km up to Sutton and abouts, including multiple runs back and forth on Twyn Rivers Dr. If you've not ridden this bit of twisty road I recommend it. Anyway, I made sure to be Covid careful, didn't lick the gas pump, etc. But seriously, I've been wanting to get out on two wheels for ages, and there's a lot more solitude and social distancing on a motorcycle rather than my bicycle on the trail system.

Twyn Rivers Dr · Ontario, Canada

Ontario, Canada

goo.gl