Abbott today announced that restaurants can be filled to 75 percent capacity, but no one is certain whether that applies to the Brownsville lounges like the Palm. At Tuesday's city commission meeting, the health department was given the authority to cite businesses that did not comply with the new city amended emergency ordinance.
The Palm Lounge and other bars and grills serving food and alcohol were closed for approximately five months because of the COVID-19 crisis. Businesses were just starting to venture to open in the downtown area.
(In the photo above, the city health inspectors stand with a city police officer taking photos in response to patrons taking them after they ordered the closing of the business.)
The amended ordinance dealing with contagious disease states that:"The keeping or permitting of any conditions in violation of the Public Health Order to exist or remain on a property, places or in the place of business of commercial entities providing goods or services directly to the public within the city limits or within areas immediately adjacent thereto in violation of this article, is hereby declared to be a public health nuisance, which may be abated by the city manager or designee by restraining order, preliminary and permanent injunction, or other means provided for by law, and the city may take action to recover the costs of the nuisance abatement."
The announcement of the closing – which did not go well with grieving Astros baseball team fans who had just lost to the Oakland Athletics – brought howls of protest from the patrons, but did not stop the inspectors backed by police officers from closing the business.
No one knew at the time whether the lounge would remain closed pending resolution of the citation. No one knows whether the inspectors had visited the few open places and enforced their rules there.
Is this the signal to a new crackdown on struggling city businesses? Was this approved by Mayor Trey Mendez?