"A lot of people went back to work in August. Will the hiring continue?" by Larry Edelman Globe Columnist, September 4, 2020
The Labor Department released its widely anticipated report on the job market Friday, and there was plenty in it for economic optimists to savor over the long holiday weekend.
Employers added 1.4 million jobs last month, a bit more than analysts had forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent from 10.2 percent in July, a much larger drop than expected, but the report wasn’t unalloyed good news. Jobs gains were driven by the hiring of temporary census workers, and 13.6 million Americans were still without a job, more than double the number in February, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We are still moving in the right direction and the pace of the jobs recovery seems to have picked up, but it still looks like it will take a while — and likely a vaccine — before we get back close to where we were at the beginning of this year,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank in Boston.
It’s not clear just how long it will take to clamber out of the COVID-19 crevasse. The government’s Employment Situation Report, which is based on dual surveys of employers and households, highlights several crosscurrents that may roil the job market in the months ahead.
First, after a big hiring surge in May (2.7 million jobs) and June (4.8 million), payroll growth has slowed in the past two months. A range of other economic data — retail sales, industrial production, housing sales — are also rising, but economists caution that without another big dose of financial support from Washington, the trend could reverse.
“We still need fiscal support,” Dec Mullarkey, managing director at SLC Management in Wellesley, said earlier this week.
That guy is literally full of mullarkey.
Second, no one expected unemployment to decline as much as it did, but it wasn’t a fluke. There are months when the jobless rate falls at least in part because people drop out of the workforce in frustration that they can’t land a job, but in August the labor force expanded by 185,000, and a greater-than-expected number of people found work.
Really?
Where?
The ranks of the unemployed fell by 3.8 million last month, a drop that may also reflect self-employed workers, who are not counted in the Labor Department’s survey of employers, restarting their jobs.
“Even with an increase of people looking for jobs, more were able to find them than last month,” said Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management in Boston. “The bad news is that 8.4 percent is still very much elevated in a historic context.”
I'm sure it is three times that. All in the counting, just like in November.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the Labor Department has more than one measure of unemployment. Its broadest category — which includes workers employed part time but who would prefer a full-time job, and those who aren’t currently looking for a job but say they want to work — stood at 14.2 percent in August, compared with 22.8 percent in April.
Third, government hiring boosted payrolls, a trend that may not last.
WHAT?
They PUT ALL OF US OUT OF WORK and then PUT ALL THEIR FRIENDS on the PUBLIC DOLE?
One-quarter of the jobs created in August (344,000) were in the government sector, and most of those (238,000) were workers hired on a temporary basis to take the 2020 Census.
Then that is basically NO JOB GROWTH, and why are they hiring census takers to go out there as cold and flu season hits?
So they can SPREAD COVID?
In the private sector, the biggest gains were seen in retail (249,000); professional and business services (197,000), though more than half of those were in temporary help services; leisure and hospitality (174,000), with three-fourths of the gain in food services and bars; health care (75,000); and private education (57,000).
Fourth, employment gains haven’t been shared equally.
Jobless rates among Black and Hispanic people are usually higher than those for white people, and it often takes people of color more time to find a new job following a recession, and finally, we’ve got a long way to go.
The rebound from April’s lows is far from complete. Employers have added back 10.6 million jobs in the past four months, less than half the 22 million that vanished in March and April.
In August, the number of permanent job losers rose by 534,000 to 3.4 million, an increase of 2.1 million since February.
The number of involuntary part-time workers last month was 3.3 million higher than in February, and the number of people out of work for 15 weeks or more in August was 8.1 million, up from 2.1 million a year earlier.....
What does that mean, involuntary part-time workers?
If they don't want the job, someone else will take it.
End the fraud, take off the masks, f**k social distancing, and open this thing up now!
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The Washington Compost quotes a cretin named Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist for LPL Financial, after US stocks saw extend losses after a seesaw session Friday as saying, "Well, 2020 has laughed at the pandemic and election, but be aware that September is indeed the worst month of the year on average" -- just as we approach the 19th anniversary(!) of 9/11(!).
I find nothing funny about this year at all as something wicked this way comes, so get out to the Cape this weekend if you can:
"For Cape Cod business owners, summer was ‘10 times the work for half the money’ — and better than expected" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff, September 4, 2020
Attracting customers wasn’t a problem this summer at Arnold’s Lobster & Clam Bar in Eastham. Despite the pandemic — and the plexiglass barriers dividing the hallways and the signs reminding people to stay 6 feet apart — the line of masked customers was out the door on weekends, but due to the temporary ban on worker visas, intended to keep jobs open for laid-off Americans, the foreign students who usually wash dishes and bus tables weren’t allowed in the country, and so, for the first time in 43 years, owner Nate Nickerson closed his restaurant on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
What makes her think the visa workers would want to come to this state in the era of COVID?
Related:
"A city restaurant popular with lawyers who work at the nearby courthouse has agreed to pay more than $79,000 in back wages and damages for failing to pay its workers the federal minimum wage and overtime pay, authorities said. The ownership of the Parkside Rotisserie & Bar this week entered a consent judgment and order with the federal government to pay almost $40,000 in back wages and the same amount in damages to more than 30 employees, the Providence Journal reported. US Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia filed a complaint and consent judgment against the Parkside in US District Court on Thursday following a yearlong investigation. Federal authorities also said the restaurant discriminated against employees by threatening to retaliate against them if they spoke to investigators. The order specifies that the owner agreed not to report or threaten to report workers to immigration or law enforcement authorities. Joseph Pezza, ownership’s lawyer, declined comment. (AP)."
That payment put them out of business.
Still, demand was higher than expected for Nickerson and many other tourism businesses across the Cape and Islands. People within driving distance were desperate to go on vacation without getting on a plane, beach days were plentiful, and takeout and outdoor dining thrived. That spelled a better-than-anticipated season for business owners — and a huge demand for rentals on the Cape.
Was only at best a third of capacity (when it didn't rain), but when you got lemons you make lemonade!
“Not as bad as it could have been” seems to be the overwhelming sentiment among Cape and Islands business owners. Most pandemic-related shutdowns were lifted before the peak tourist season began, and with a late Labor Day, many people able to work wherever there’s Wi-Fi, and schools delaying start dates or holding classes online, the fall is shaping up to be busier than normal.
Really?
With COVID everywhere and making a comeback?
The challenges, of course, have been unprecedented. Restaurants struggled to get enough workers due to the visa clampdown, and some local employees were too nervous to come back, driving owners to reduce hours. Extra cleaning procedures and spacing requirements drove up costs, and a cascade of changing regulations required constant vigilance. Between wearing masks and monitoring customer numbers, employees were exhausted.
As one Wellfleet restaurant owner put it: “It was 10 times the work for half the money,” and yet, for many, that was better than expected.
Ah, a WHIFF of TOTALITARIANI$M along with employees affected by health-harming mask requirements.
Hotel occupancy was down nearly 23 percent from mid-July to mid-August compared to last year, but only off 13 percent on weekends, said Wendy Northcross, chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, and bookings for the first two weeks of September are stronger than usual.
Did way better than Bo$ton.
“It was a roller coaster for sure,” Northcross said, noting that hoteliers thought occupancy would be much lower considering the lack of weddings and reunions and conferences. “We still worry that they made enough to be able to stick around until next year.”
Housing rentals, on the other hand, were off the charts.
The renters left the places “trashed,” but that's okay.
At the Chatham Clothing Bar, owner Sandy Wycoff said she feels lucky sales are down only about 30 percent. Wearing masks all day is tough, she said: Your glasses steam up, you sweat, and you have to talk loudly to be heard through both the cloth and the plexiglass at the register. “Let me tell you, it’s not fun and it’s not pretty,” she said. Wycoff also keeps someone stationed at the door to make sure there are no more than 14 people in the store at a time, and to remind customers to leave their drinks, and their dogs, outside. “You’re always, always on,” she said.
It's also depriving you of oxygen while offering a placebo for protection, as well as you creating in your own CO2 and other gunk. Not good.
At Skull Island in South Yarmouth, a 59-year-old institution offering mini golf, batting cages, and go-karts, owner Lou Nickinello installed porta-potties and introduced window service for giving out golf balls and go-kart tickets so customers can stay outside. Business is off about 20 percent, and that’s fine by Nickinello, 79, who said he has already managed to pay back the $100,000 he borrowed from the bank to keep the lights on. “I’m ecstatic that we did that well,” he said.
Bud Noyes at JT’s Seafood Restaurant in Brewster is also thrilled with how the summer turned out. JT’s was already geared toward takeout and outdoor dining, so despite keeping the dining room closed, business is up double digits, he said. “It couldn’t have been better for me,” he said.
Definitely not as bad as expected.
Yeah, everybody is getting rich.
The Lobster Claw Restaurant in Orleans also did a “massive” takeout business and the dining room was busy, but with no outdoor space and nearly half the tables removed — despite setting some up in the gift shop — business is down substantially. The owners decided to sell the restaurant, but it’s about retirement, not COVID-19, said Don Berig, 81, who owns the spot with his wife and still makes the orders, cuts the fish, greets guests, and does the bookkeeping. In large part, judging by his liquor sales, it was the older customers who stayed away this summer, Berig said.
Once you get past the Globe $auce this entree smells like $hit.
Alcohol sales are also off at the Lobster Trap in Bourne, largely because people can’t have a beer at the bar or order a cocktail while they wait for a table, said owner Dave Delancey. “Thanks, Charlie,” he said, referring to Governor Baker’s orders. “Twist the knife a little deeper, buddy.”
One of the few outliers, for the livelihood-destroying tyrant called a governor is immensely popular.
By the end of the year, Delancey expects revenues will be down less than 20 percent, which isn’t terrible considering the year-round restaurant was closed for more than a month. Still, when it gets colder and he has to close the patio and bring in the tables from the parking lot, Delancey isn’t sure what will happen: “I’m just a little nervous for the winter.”
We all are, in more ways than one. The genocidal vaccine is supposed to be ready long before then.
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Then there is this always accurate weather report:
"The Old Farmer’s Almanac and Farmers’ Almanac predict snowy weather for New England this winter" by Emily Sweeney Globe Staff, September 3, 2020
The Farmers’ Almanac is forecasting “a wintry mix of rainy, icy and/or snowy weather” for New England.
The Lewiston, Maine-based publication has been published every year since 1818 and is known (along with New Hampshire-based The Old Farmer’s Almanac) for its long-range weather predictions.
Farmers’ Almanac managing editor Sandi Duncan said in a press release the forecast for this region is a lot different from what we got last year.
“If you didn’t like last winter’s somewhat boring weather in the Northeast,” she said, “you may be happy to hear what we are predicting for 2021.”
“The ’winter wild card’ belongs to areas around the Tennessee and lower Ohio River valleys, north, and east up through New England where the Almanac suggests will see a mix of intense weather systems that will keep delivering a wintry mix of rainy, icy and/or snowy weather throughout the season,” the press release stated.
That is the last thing we need.
How many power outages and people disappearing?
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which was founded in 1792 and is based in New Hampshire, is also predicting a snowy winter for the Northeast.
Wow, it was founded the same year as the New York Stock Exchange.
Its weather map of the United States for the 2021 winter shows the New England region labeled with the slogan “It’s snow time!”
“The 2021 Old Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a warmer-than-normal winter throughout the majority of the U.S., with uncommonly chilly temperatures limited mostly to the western states and Maine,” the press release stated. “‘Wet’ will be a wintertime constant, with rains or average to below-average snowfall throughout most of the country. Significant above average snowfall is being predicted for Wisconsin and parts of Michigan and Alaska, as well as for the High Plains and northeastern states.”
I'm fine with that!
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A different kind of foreca$t, and one that is usually accompanied by a bag of $hit:
"State tax collections continue to rebound" by Colin A. Young State House News, September 4, 2020
Having taken in $1.992 billion in tax revenue in August, state tax collections are running $124 million — or more than 3 percent — ahead of their pace one year ago, the Department of Revenue reported Friday, a potentially promising sign given predictions that receipts could collapse this fiscal year.
OMFG!
They claim they are connecting more than last year, as if the economy is growing!
“Revenues for the month of August were mainly driven by withholding, part of which is attributed to withholding on unemployment insurance benefits, as well as the regular sales tax. These increases were offset by decreases in non-withheld income tax, meals tax, corporate and business taxes, and ‘All Other’ tax,” Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said.
They took their chunk of your unemployment to fatten up their tyranny, can you believe it?
“August year-to-date total collections were also impacted by corporate and business tax payments attributable to returns due in April, following the waiver of late filing and payment penalties until July 15 for such returns. DOR will continue to monitor revenue collections closely,” Snyder added.
Oh, it's like a windfall since tax-filing times were pushed back.
This is all an illu$ion of a healthy tax haul.
State officials, citing estimates provided while the pandemic has unfolded, have estimated that fiscal 2021 tax collections could fall anywhere from $2 billion to $8 billion below fiscal 2020 levels.
It is unclear how August’s actual collections compare to the expectations of state budget managers in the administration and Legislature. DOR said that August is “one of the smaller months for revenue collection” because few individual or business taxpayers make significant estimated payments during the month.
Friday’s revenue report from DOR should provide some clarity for Baker administration officials and legislative leaders involved in managing the state’s finances. It comes while Massachusetts has the worst unemployment rate in the nation (16.1 percent) for a second month running.....
And yet somehow, they collected more tax revenue than last year as we love King Chuck and willingly accept the death and destruction he has foisted on us if Globe commenters are to be believed!
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Too bad it is too late to fly out of this state:
"Virgin Australia airline to be sold to US-based Bain Capital" by NICK PERRY, September 5 2020
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Virgin Australia’s creditors agreed Friday to sell the airline to Boston-based Bain Capital in a deal that will see the carrier cut 3,000 jobs and end many of its international flights.
Co-founded by British businessman Richard Branson, the airline in April became the world’s largest to seek bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic grounded much of the aviation industry. It plans to reemerge with cheap fares as a value-based carrier.
Another airline founded by Branson, Virgin Atlantic, last month filed for protection in U.S. bankruptcy court as part of a process in the United Kingdom to carry out a restructuring plan.
Virgin Australia said the deal with Bain, worth $2.5 billion, would see unsecured creditors get paid between 9 and 13 cents on the dollar for their claims. Virgin’s creditors are owed a total of about $7 billion.
Due to the pandemic, the creditor meeting was held online. The administrators in June signed a binding agreement with Bain Capital, the company co-founded by former Republican presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney.
Paul Scurrah, the chief executive of Virgin Australia Group, said the sale moves the airline closer to leaving bankruptcy protection and allows it to focus on the future, in which it will continue competing with its larger rival, Qantas Airways.
“It’s vital for Australia to have two major airlines for consumer choice, value airfares, and to help support the recovery of Australia’s robust tourism sector after this crisis is over,” Scurrah said in a statement.
The place is under the most severe lockdown in the entire world for a "crisis" that may never end and they are talking about plane flights and carrier choices?
Virgin’s administrator Deloitte said creditors had voted overwhelmingly in favor of the deal in what have been challenging circumstances.
“This outcome provides certainty for employees and customers, a return to creditors, and opportunities for suppliers and financiers to continue to trade,” Joint Voluntary Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said in a statement.
Under a plan announced previously by Scurrah, the airline will cut back it’s workforce to 6,000 and end long-haul routes from Australia to Los Angeles and Tokyo as it resets the business for lower global demand.
Like I said earlier, all part of the Great Re$et when there are lot fewer of us around.
The airline plans to shed its Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 planes and use Boeing 737s, along with some smaller aircraft for regional and charter flights. The airline’s budget subsidiary Tigerair Australia will be discontinued.
They are going to use those defective pieces of $hit?
Virgin Australia’s major shareholders are Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airways, along with Chinese investment conglomerates Nanshan Group and HNA Group. Branson holds a 10% stake.
No $hit?!
The airline sought bankruptcy protection after the Australian government refused its request for a AU$1.4 billion loan.
Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters at the time his government wasn’t going to bail out “five large foreign shareholders with deep pockets who together own 90% of this airline.”
Qantas argued that it had three times more revenue than Virgin and was therefore entitled to a AU$4.2 billion loan if the smaller airline was not to gain an unfair advantage.
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The deal is meant to keep him airborne until 2023, and you won't be able to fly to New Zealand because they reported its first death from the coronavirus since May, nor return to England:
"The British government has made a big show this summer about its coronavirus quarantine list — and generated lots of drama. The ever-growing list of countries identified as virus hot spots has prompted diplomatic outrage from British allies, who threaten reciprocal travel restrictions. It has stirred travel and airline industry leaders to complain that Britain is killing their sectors by hanging up a “closed” sign, and it has set off panicky scrambles of British holidaymakers trying to rush home before mandatory 14-day quarantines take effect. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain must be “absolutely ruthless about this, even with our closest and dearest friends and partners around the world,” but the enforcement numbers don’t suggest ruthlessness. Since June, when Britain began requiring self-isolation for people traveling from countries where the novel coronavirus is spreading at a rapid rate, police have fined only three people for ignoring the rules in England and Wales. An additional nine people were fined for failing to fill out contact forms. That’s out of the 50,000 people the government says arrive from abroad each day, many traveling from countries on the quarantine list. A report by Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee said it was “unconvinced” by claims of near-perfect adherence......"
UPDATE:
"COVID’s suffocating grasp is choking businesses in Cambridge’s Central Square" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff, September 5, 2020
CAMBRIDGE — Seated behind the cash register in a storefront filled with leotards, tights, and rows of footwear, the cramped quarters where he has made his living for decades, Steven Adelson does not mince words: This could be the month that buries his business, the one that is named after his father and has called Central Square home since 1957.
Teddy Shoes, a shop that specializes in dance shoes and apparel, is in dire straits. Adelson said he has more than 20,000 pieces of inventory, but it doesn’t do him much good if he can’t sell it, and sales, he said, are down between 80 percent and 90 percent compared to pre-pandemic times.
“I’m wondering whether or not I can survive,” he said last week. “Right now I’m just hoping and praying.”
Adelson has a lot of company in his worries. Central Square, home to an eclectic array of shops, and before the pandemic, a bustling restaurant and nightlife scene, is in many ways emblematic of the devastation the coronavirus has wrought on small businesses across the region and country — and of the way the virus’s suffocating grasp has spread into the most vibrant neighborhoods.
“We’re all worried,” said Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui recently of what kind of Central Square will emerge from the pandemic.
Date spot Cuchi Cuchi called it quits in May after 19 years. The Field, a popular, no-frills Irish pub on Prospect Street, made it 25 years before closing in July.
The square’s signature performance venues have been silenced for months. The Cantab Lounge, a celebrated dive and live music spot that on some nights generated a ruckus loud enough to be heard through the wall of the pizza joint next door, has been a Cambridge institution since the 1930s. It was put up for sale earlier in the summer.
The future of Improv Boston, which in normal times is host to dozens of stand-up, sketch, and improv shows a week, is also in doubt.
There will be no return to normal.
Some restaurants are making a go of it with outdoor seating that, in some cases, swings into Massachusetts Avenue, but several watering holes have yet to reopen, and questions abound regarding whether they ever will, with beloved bars throughout Greater Boston shutting for good seemingly on a daily basis.
The square saw changes before the pandemic that made the neighborhood known for quirky boutiques, including a bookstore that specializes in crystals and a record shop that’s been around since the Eisenhower administration, a little less weird, with substantial luxury housing sprouting up along the Mass. Ave. corridor and a Target coming to the neighborhood in 2017.
Now, much of what defines Central appears to be in flux.
September is usually the busy season for Teddy Shoes, as the return of school also means a return to dance class for some kids. This, Adelson said, will be “the crucial month” that decides whether the store continues or he is forced to shut it down, which is now a “definite possibility.”
“It would really crush me,” he said.
Adelson launched a GoFundMe in March to help the store with its finances, a fund-raising effort that helped in the initial months but, as Adelson notes “we still have a lot of bills to catch up on.” He did receive paycheck protection program, or PPP, funding from the federal government and received a $6,000 grant from the city. Such fiscal aid has helped, but it’s not enough, said Adelson.
He hasn’t punted the store’s rent yet, but has deferred other bills — credit cards, vendor invoices, and insurance. Before the public health emergency, Adelson had a few part-timers working at the store, but now he is the sole employee. He takes Tuesdays off and works the other six days of the week, but business is slow. He says he makes a sale or two a day.
“I’m not a world beater here, I’m not really rich, but I’m trying to make ends meet,” he said. “Now, it’s just, it’s brutal.”
A short walk away from Adelson’s shop, Improv Boston’s operations have been suspended for months.
Before the pandemic, the company, located a few doors down from The Field, was averaging about 40 shows a week, and its classes and performances brought in about 2,000 people a week, people who also might shop and dine locally, but the company’s five full-time employees have been furloughed since June, and while they have put on some outdoor shows, they were free to the public and not profitable for the theater.
“Everything was great and then it wasn’t,” said Josh Garneau, the company’s managing director. “It feels like when you go to take a step on a staircase that isn’t there and everything is out of balance.”
Garneau would like to open for comedy classes in January, and then eventually host shows, but he acknowledges that the future is uncertain, and that not returning to its Prospect Street home of 11 years is a possibility.
Throughout the pandemic, the company’s rent has been partly deferred. Improv Boston still owes back rent, and insurance and software expenses are still there. Closing for good is not out of the question, Garneau said.
“We’re still spending money even though we’re not making it,” he said. “Frankly, the bank accounts are not unlimited.”
There are questions about other venues, too. Lynn Scannell, the daughter of Cantab Lounge owner Richard “Fitzy” Fitzgerald, said the pandemic nudged her 84-year-old father in the direction of retirement. The club is now for sale.
“We’re very much hoping that someone will come forward and keep the place going,” she said.
She is adamant Cantab would reopen if there is no buyer, but the timeline for such a move, like so much else, is not clear.
“If the governor would let us open, we would open, but we don’t see that happening anytime too soon,” Scannell said.
Me, neither. If anything he will lock us down more.
Another legendary music venue in the square, the Middle East, has also been silenced for months by COVID-19. There were already questions about the future of the establishment before the virus struck, with outlets reporting in January it was up for sale.
At the time, the Middle East indicated in a Facebook post that its ownership was looking to develop the property but added that the Middle East restaurant and nightclub “will remain running and open as usual.” Attempts to reach management were unsuccessful last week.
Nearby on Mass. Ave., Adam Penn, owner of Veggie Galaxy, a vegetarian diner whose menu includes omelets named for Cambridge streets and corned-beef seitan hash, lamented the COVID-19 challenges.
Before, the restaurant employed between 50 and 55 workers. It now has half that. Sales at the diner, which opened in 2011, are down about 40 percent from the norm, Penn said. Still, he considers the restaurant to be lucky given the circumstances; he believes that survival is attainable.
All you are fighting for now is $urvival, huh?
Penn said he has “zero interest” in having patrons dine inside until there is, at minimum, a vaccine. He wants his workers to be safe. The restaurant started a curbside pickup service in recent weeks and is contemplating doing delivery, something it has never done before. Unlike other nearby restaurants that have set up al fresco sections, Penn has opted to have no outdoor dining, saying the sidewalk in front of the diner would be better utilized for pick-up service.
“We’re not going to be particularly profitable during this time, but we’re going to get by,” said Penn.
I doubt it.
Elsewhere on Mass. Ave., the backbone of Central Square, Joseph McCabe, co-owner of the Phoenix Landing, a soccer bar by day, dance club by night, gave a frank assessment of business these days: “It’s a big nightmare.” He estimated sales were down between 70 percent and 80 percent.
In recent months, owners of the bar have been paying for its operation out of their own personal accounts, he said. He thought the city could have done more to help the restaurant during the crisis. The establishment turns 25 years old on Sept. 17, which McCabe said promises to be a “most miserable birthday.” He acknowledged that closing Phoenix Landing is not out of the question in coming months.
“We’re just drained,” he said. “We’re in pure panic mode.”
A couple blocks away, Rodney’s Bookstore has a set date for when it will be the latest Central Square staple to leave its longtime home: Oct. 31, but unlike the others, owner Shaw Taylor says the shop’s departure would have happened pandemic or no: he hasn’t had a lease in 10 years and his landlord wants him out, and perhaps unusual among the square’s businesses that have recently gone by the wayside, Taylor is relentlessly optimistic: He’ll reopen, he said, perhaps in Central, but definitely in Cambridge, which the shop has called home for 21 years.
It's a trick-or-treat, right?
Still, the specifics of when and where are among the open questions, given rental market uncertainties caused by the virus. He does not expect business to return to any semblance of normalcy until there is at least a vaccine.
Really jabbing the agenda at you, aren't they?
Taylor is now spending his days packing books into boxes. There are tens of thousands of them. He plans on selling his wares right up until the end, when his shop’s departure will become another page in the fast-moving story of Central Square.
“Things change,” he said recently while seated in the children’s book section, “but it usually doesn’t change all at once like this.”
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