________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
4,027
CoMMUNItY UPDAtE $1.00
Infections as of May 18 4,017
Vol. 32 No. 22
City and Riptides strike deal
18/21 itc FG Demi Condensed
Page 23
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MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2021
1132124
Infections as of May 25
We learned we’re stronger together
City looks forward to summer By JAMEs BERNstEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Long Beach residents can breathe a sigh of relief: The city is reopening. As the Memorial Day Weekend draws closer, parks are open, as are restaurants and bars, and most of all, the beloved beach will be open. Covid-19 cases across the state are at their lowest levels since the pandemic began last year. Most businesses have fully reopened. “I think it’s going to be a fan-
tastic summer,” said Ian Danby, chairman of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. “People can’t wait to be outside.” He noted that this past weekend, beaches and the boardwalk were crowded. “I hope the restaurants find the staff,” Danby said. Some restaurants have had trouble bringing on help, as laid-off wait staff took other jobs. And, Danby said, the pandemic did have one positive note: People are more likely to wash their hands and otherwise sanitize. The state has eased most
FREE INsIDE:
restrictions. For Long Beach, that means more beach time. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said beaches can be at 100 percent capacity by July Fourth. State Department of Health officials said the seven-day positivity rate had dropped to 1.28 percent, the lowest since Oct. 23. Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday said Long Island’s vaccination rate is the highest in the state — with almost 70 percent of those 18 and over receiving at least one Covid-19 shot. Cuomo also said Continued on page 3
LONG BEACH
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week announced extra summer service and beach getaway deals at a news conference on the boardwalk. City Councilwoman Liz Treston, second from right, was joined by local officials and Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng, center, to launch the “TakeTheTrain” campaign.
2021-2022
the train’s the way to go
Living in
Courtesy City of Long Beach
The coronavirus pandemic swept across the United States, including Long Beach, like a wildfire over the past 15 months, killing 590,000 of our fellow Americans. We mourn each and every one of these precious lives taken too soon. In recent months, however, we have begun to emerge from this nationwide catastrophe, and because of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moder na and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, we are seeing a glimmer of hope. The Covid-19 infection and death rates have plummeted, and now we are looking forward to a summer that re s e m bl e s t h e normal ones we knew before 2020, particularly in the City by the Sea. We also learned an important lesson during this crisis: We are stronger together. Throughout the pandemic, all of us at the Herald have strived to report the news swiftly and accurately. Suddenly last spring, we were no longer a weekly newspaper. We were a daily, publishing the news online at liherald.com and in our newsletter. Hundreds of thousands of people a month came to our website for the latest news. The pandemic stretched us to our limits, but we never broke. We have been with you throughout, and our pledge is to remain
with you until all of us return to normal life — or whatever our lives will be in the new normal. Producing the news, however, is a costly endeavor. We must pay the salaries of reporters, editors, photographers, graphic artists, advertising account executives, press operators, drivers and managers. Now, more than ever, we are relying on you, our readers, to support us, as we have supported you through this crisis. Please consider taking an annual subscription to the Herald. See our subscription ad in this week’s paper on Page 14. If you are already a Herald subscriber, thank you for your support. We hope you are pleased with our coverage, and if you are, you might consider taking a two- or threeyear subscription. If you’re new to the Herald, then you must know that our mission is to cover all the news of your neighborhood, from the schools to the Little Leagues, from houses of worship to veterans organizations. We also want to hear what you have to say about the issues affecting Long Beach. Please share your story ideas with us.
www.liherald.com
Jim Bernstein, Editor Darwin Yanes, Associate Editor
KINDERGARtEN KIDs KEEPsAKE EDItIoN