De Blasio's vaccine check edict 'creating situations ripe for conflict', Manhattan cafe owner says
"We shouldn’t have to get in the middle to deny somebody the right to come to a restaurant," Tyler Hollinger says
Festival Café owner Tyler Hollinger reacts to New York City requiring small businesses to check that all customers are vaccinated.
New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio's new edict requiring most indoor businesses and venues to verify the vaccination status of all customers is creating another situation "ripe for conflict" in the already beleaguered hospitality sector, a Manhattan cafe owner told Fox Business on Friday.
Tyler Hollinger, owner of Festival Cafe in Lenox Hill, told "Cavuto Coast to Coast" that the city should not be forcing businesses to police vaccination statuses – and that the order gives businesses another reason to flee the Big Apple.
"At this point, everyone who works here is vaccinated, and we do not require proof of vaccination. However, come September 13th the city is imposing massive fines and penalties for businesses that don’t comply. So it’s a burden on the small businesses because now I have to hire somebody, an extra employee, somebody else who’s on the payroll to just check vaccine cards. And for a business that’s already been suffering an entire year, this is even worse," he said.
NYC Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa weighs in on Mayor Bill de Blasio, new NYC coronavirus mandates, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and crime in the city.
"What the mayor is creating are situations ripe for conflict," Hollinger added. "And we shouldn’t have to get in the middle to deny somebody the right to come to a restaurant, the right to eat and dine inside, the right to patronize our business -- because, let’s be frank – we need the help. We need the business. We need all the help we can possibly get if we’re going to stay alive."
Hollinger said de Blasio's order will compound the industry-wide issues already hurting businesses like his, pointing to the Biden administration's continued allocation of inflated unemployment assistance payments that he and other business owners say are preventing people from returning to the workforce.
"Come September 13th, they’re going to have to fire all these people," he said of city businesses. "So now you’re even harming the workforce even more. The fact of the matter is in New York City, everybody who worked in hospitality, who lived and breathed it, frankly, got up and left. The workforce is very, very lean right now."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Earlier on "Coast to Coast", New York City Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa shared some of Hollinger's sentiments, remarking that private businesses should have freedom of choice.
Sliwa, founder and president of the Guardian Angels, also claimed the NYPD does not want to enforce the order.
"Who's going to enforce it?" he asked.
Sliwa faces Democratic Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in November, as de Blasio is term-limited.