Shutting down the 2nd Street market wasn’t a brilliant idea. Local farmers depended on a place to sell their eggs and meat. For some people, they depend on it. Where else but The Chef Case can you get all gluten free food? Why put those restaurants out of business while allowing others to stay open for carry out. The solution was to not have any of the non-food vendors open. Clear away the tables to allow social distancing while waiting for food from the food vendors- and have people enter one end- and walk straight through to the other to pick up meat and eggs. It’s no different than a Kroger when you think rationally. Dumb award to Metroparks.
If we were smart, we’d already be building roll-over triage space on the Fairgrounds property for Miami Valley. Set up the National Guard with a field hospital, and start preparing people. In some ways, when the weather starts warming up, it’s easier to sanitize an open air field hospital than it is standard hospital room. We’ll need additional beds guaranteed, and the time to start building that capacity is now. We might also look at the closed Gibbon Hotel at Third and Main as a potential place for quarantine quarters. Off the top of my head, I can’t identify as many other rooms that are available. Using a hotel that’s in operation isn’t as practical, since the first thing you’ll want to remove is carpet. I don’t think the Dayton Marriot or even the Crown Plaza would like that requirement. It’s too bad we let Premier tear down Good Sam now… huh? It would have come in handy after the Tornadoes too.
While some stores are limiting hours for those over 65, or quantities of key items, the real key is to stop stores from being full. Maybe it’s time to dice up the days of the week for people to shop by the first letter of their last name. Mondays- A-D, Tuesdays E-H etc. Then also break up the day by first hours to those who are old, or compromised, then the rest through the rest of the day. With less people in the store- social distancing at checkout gets easier.
Neighborhoods should start trying to identify who in their neighborhood depends on outside help for basic daily functions and make sure someone is checking on them. We’re working out surveys in our neighborhood to do this, as well as identifying who has medical and health care experience.
There is no playbook for a pandemic in this country. It’s time to bring the best minds together on how to minimize the impact of the coronavirus at every step of it’s course through our community. If you’ve got ideas, please leave them in the comments.
Certainly, basic sustenance is necessity. I am stunned that Kroger and Meijer cannot seem to ramp up. For crying out loud, the Meijer Dist. Ctr is up the street in Tipp City. There are already restaurant servers and many displaced workers that could be in those groceries on 3rd shift stocking. Despite Krogers announcement that they would be closing @ 9 PM to allow cleaning and stocking, I sure do not see it happening at my local location. Not one little bit. AND, I was there this morning at 7 AM when the doors opened and the milk case was empty and of course paper goods were missing. Some local leader needs to get an answer from the regional directors of these 2 outfits. Not the manager nor the dairy clerk nor the produce guy nor the butcher – somebody w/ some swing needs to get in on the dialogue and get cracking. The afternoon update is a predictable line-up w DeWine, Hustead and Acton w/ occasional guest stars. And, the report is knowledge of a 24 hours scope of events; however, DeWine needs to add somebody daily to talk to people about something related; but, not constantly the virus. Beyond feeding bodies, Dewine needs to assign some creative committee to think outside the box to deliver hope, block loneliness and trade the anxiety for activity. Private cubicles would, of course, be ideal; but, there are still some remaining drive-ins that could allow folks to break the doldrum, stay in their cars w/ concessions served by employee vendors a la the ballpark. Cars will have to serve as cubicals – we could develop some drive-thru entertainment thru our metro parks. Local mayors have got to look out for their home-owned restaurants and somehow deliver residents to the transformed to carry-out eateries. There are no major sports being played – but, DeWine has allowed the Lebanon and Cleveland horse tracks to operate w/ limited staff and no spectators. There could be a way to make it a family – community – city vs. city or what have you by directing Fox… Read more »
What about the private hospital on the old St E’s campus that Premier drove out of business last week. Maybe that could help in the housing, quarantine or treatment of needed. Thanks to Premier we’re losing health resources due to their sought after monopoly of health care. By the way, I couldn’t help noticing the Premier has a habit of targeting health care West of the river, even if they have to buy it to close it (GSH).