Scott LoBaido to S.I. restaurant owners: ‘Pick one day [to open] . They can’t shut everybody down.’
Updated Dec 14, 2020;
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Controversial patriot artist and community activist Scott LoBaido is urging Staten Island restaurant owners to “pick one day” and “all open together” in protest of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s shuttering of indoor dining on Monday amid rising coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.
LoBaido made the announcement at a rally he planned on Sunday in front of Mac’s Public House, which drew more than 125 people to support restaurant owners.
But LoBaido said during Sunday’s rally that restaurants on Staten Island should take a stand together, suggesting they choose a day to remain open for indoor dining.
arrow Jeanne-Marie Abinatti stands outside her salon on December 5, 2020 Gwynne Hogan / WNYC
Marcia Moreno still had her suitcases packed. She’d planned to visit family in Costa Rica, though those plans were put on hold indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 84-year-old had immigrated to Staten Island from Costa Rica in her twenties and raised her family in the borough’s New Dorp neighborhood.
“She was gonna go,” said her 59-year-old daughter Anayancy Houseman. “She loved to travel.”
Moreno was living alone and diligently isolating for most of the pandemic, her daughter said. But she fell in October, and was sent to a rehab facility where she was diagnosed with COVID in late November. She was transferred to Staten Island University Hospital a few days later.