ARLINGTON, Texas — As cars zoomed down Division Street on a recent Sunday afternoon, some honked in support of protesters, while others slowed down long enough to let fly a low-speed angry rant. On either side of the stretch of Arlington known as Dive Bar Alley, a smattering of business owners, employees, and loyal patrons held signs while enduring oven-like temperatures. Similar scenes replayed throughout Texas, as supporters of the bar business took to the streets to speak out against Gov. Abbott’s recent shutdown of the state’s entire industry.
As COVID-19 numbers soar in Texas, local, and state officials have walked back plans to reopen businesses. Though many industries have suffered during the government’s yo-yoing reopening policies, few, if any, have been hit as hard as bars. National and state health officials view bars as risky hubs for transmitting the novel Coronavirus. State health agency contact tracing reports seem to confirm that label – though not without controversy.
As local watering holes shutter across the state, the Bar Lives Matter protests hope to expose what activists are calling the unfair targeting of bars.
“Our main thing was to educate the community in Arlington,” said Lisa Parker, manager of Pearl’s Cherokee Lounge and one of the event’s organizers. “Restaurant bars are still open, and that’s a double standard. We lost a lot of our customers who are sitting [at restaurant bars] drinking, and they aren’t eating anything.”
The legal standard for what constitutes a bar that serves food versus a restaurant that offers drinks is based on a 51 percent alcohol sales scale. Already in Texas, several places that only recently crossed the 51 percent threshold have been forced to close.Chris Polone, who owns The Rail Club, a hard-rock-leaning nightclub, opened his bar in defiance of the governor’s orders – although the bar didn’t serve booze.
“You can’t legally order a beer from my bar,” he said. “However, you can walk across the street to Applebee’s, sit at the bar with 25 other people, and you can order a burger with your beer. Just about every sit-down restaurant you go to has the exact same liquor license as I do.”
Polone organized the Tea Party Protest on behalf of what he calls the 51 percenters. Last weekend, as 40 people filed into his club for a night of music, a TABC officer showed up and ordered Polon to close. In a video that has circulated on social media, Polone refused to shut down and ripped up the order on stage to a cheering crowd.
Since he billed the event as a protest and didn’t serve alcohol, Polone believes the government is trying to deny his right to free speech.
“They gave us the option to shut down,” he said. “Mind you, there was no alcohol inside our facility. We had it all locked up in our liquor closet. No money was here at all. It was a free event.
“We told them that, and they said ‘We still have the governor’s order,’” he continued. “‘If you shut down now, we won’t do anything, but if you decide to stay open, you’re looking at a 30-day suspension.’ We went public about that, as a violation of our right to protest and peacefully assemble.”
Polon said his bar took extra safety precautions, including passing out masks and hand sanitizer to every concertgoer, spacing tables 10 feet apart, only allowing four people per table, and using tape to create a boundary around every seating area.
He is now awaiting word as to whether or not his license will be suspended for 30 days.
Pearl’s has joined a lawsuit consisting of North Texas bar owners who are suing the state for the right reopen. One lawsuit has already been filed on behalf of 10 bars mostly located in South Texas. In that case, bar owners are suing for lost income.
Parker said her business still has to pay rent and taxes, despite having no incoming money. The Texas Comptroller still requires all bars to pay an administrative fee, even though the bar didn’t report any sales.
“We kind of felt that Gov. Abbott wasn’t very pro bars,” she said. “There has been some discrimination and targeting of bars for a very long time. All the major amusement parks are still open. Grocery stores are still open. Even the restaurants that have bars, they’re still open.”
She went on to say that she won’t be organizing any more protests for at least a couple of weeks.
“We don’t want people to think we’re selfish,” she said. “Even though some bars went ahead and opened anyway, we’re not that type of bar. We are for the community. We want safety for our customers and staff.
“We don’t want people to think we’re out there passing [the virus] to each other,” she continued. COVID-19, she reiterated, “it’s out there and it’s affecting people, but we don’t want to make people any madder at us."