Asbury Park Defies Governor Murphy, Will Allow Indoor Dining

The latest update to the executive order put in place by Gov. Murphy says that restaurants can open for outdoor dining starting June 15th. Asbury Park looked at that rule, crumpled up the paper, tossed it in the trash, and said "nah, we got this."

According to the resolution embedded in that tweet, restaurants may open at 25% capacity or with a limit of 50 people, whichever is lower.

Interestingly, Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn says that while Asbury Park is allowing restaurants to open, it will still be considered a violation of the Executive Order - which means that Asbury Park won't fine anyone, but there is still a chance the State could.

I understand that Governor Murphy is erring on the side of caution...but after weeks and months of "we're not sure about dates for re-opening", people have just plain said "eff it". I do have a slight bit of sympathy for those in charge, because if Murphy had said "okay re-open everything on May 1st" and then there was a gigantic spike and more people got sick and our hospitals were overflowing, everyone would have trashed him for that. He was really stuck in a no-win situation.

Even in that no-win situation, Murphy is constantly contradicting himself. If I can have my own indoor gathering with with up to 50 people, why can't a restaurant have 50 people? I've never been shy about my love for Asbury Park, especially their food scene, and I get a real kick out of the fact that they are the ones to give the state the finger.