Headline of the Day

Business owners in COVID-wracked city neighborhoods targeted for a new lockdown ripped Mayor Bill de Blasio over the move Sunday.

“My plan?! What’s my plan?! Start drinking?!” said Queens restaurant owner Syed Hossain when told of the mayor’s proposal to shut down indoor and outdoor dining again, as well as public and private schools and all non-essential businesses, in his and eight other neighborhoods starting Wednesday.

Hossain, 24, is the owner of Tikka Indian Grill at 119-30 Metropolitan Ave., Kew Gardens — in zip code 11415, which had an average positive-test rate of 3.81 percent for the coronavirus for the past two weeks.

The city has set its threshold at 3 percent.

“I gotta call my parents!” said Hossain, who also owns three other city restaurants — including one in the 11211 zip code in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is on a city “watch list” and under threat of lockdown, too.

“I just bought $3,000 worth of outdoor dining supplies today,” the beleaguered businessman told The Post. “Every [eatery owner] just bought outdoor heaters, they’re almost $2,000 each. They’re nonreturnable.

“Mr. Mayor, you are going to put everyone in these neighborhoods out of business!”

Cathy Alaimo, 59, who has owned Europa Pizza at 20th Avenue and 65th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with her husband since 1992, said, “I was hiring — and now I’ve got to fire everyone again.”

“It’s too much,” said the pizzeria owner, whose shop is in the zip code 11204 — where there was a 6.74 percent positive-test-rate average for the past two weeks.

“[De Blasio] doesn’t know what the meaning of work is,” she said. “He has to stop this.”

(Excerpt) Read more at:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/04/nyc-business-owners-rip-de-blasio-over-threat-of-new-lockdown/