Georgia’s reopening is going really slowly

Growing numbers of states are allowing their shelter-in-place orders to expire and letting businesses reopen. This has Republicans rooting for a rapid economic recovery as people get back to work and
Democrats fearing a renewed spike in virus transmission. But take it from me, a Georgian who’s been legally permitted to get a haircut or a face tattoo for two weeks and counting, reopening will be dictated much more by the comfort level of consumers and businesses than by the decisions of governors.
When Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on April 20 that Georgia would be the most aggressive state in the country about reopening, there was a mixed response from the business community, judging from the businesses that I personally frequent. That day, American Haircuts, a barbershop I frequented for years, sent an email to customers saying it intended to reopen in a limited capacity as early as April 24. Three days later, perhaps in response to feedback from customers and employees, it sent a longer email saying it hoped to be open within the next few weeks. There has been no update since.
Much of metro Atlanta’s restaurant industry knew immediately that reopening would take time and that there wouldn’t be a rush back in the name of expediency.
Hugh Acheson, a well-known Atlanta restaurateur, tweeted on April 21 that “No one tells me when to open.” Using the hashtag #GAHospitality, 50 restaurant owners representing 120 restaurants took out a full-page ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution giving their reasons for remaining closed for dine-in service despite being allowed to reopen. As we head into mid-May there have been no major updates on when Atlanta’s dining scene will reopen.
For-profit businesses aren’t the only entities holding back: My church, with several campuses throughout metro Atlanta and by some measures the largest church in the country, remains closed with no planed reopening date.
The limited data we have on normalidation suggests that despite Georgia technically being open, its trajectory isn’t that much different from peer states that remain closed. Lyft reported earnings and broke out April business trends in various metro areas. Between the week ended on April 05 and on May 03 ridership increased 25% in Atlanta, but it also increased 35% in Chicago, 22% in New York City and 25% in Seattle, areas that still are under lockdowns.
Apple Maps data show that mobility is increasing pretty consistently throughout the country since early April, with Atlanta’s recovery similar to Houston’s, another car-dependent metro area in a state
that had a later and more limited reopening.
Depending upon the outcome you’re anticipating, this news should either be sobering or a relief. Government can’t force a business to reopen if its managers don’t feel that doing so is in its best interests. Nor, obviously, can government force customers to carry on with their pre-virus routines. Even if normalisation from here on occurs in a straight line it will only occur as quickly as all stakeholders in the process feel safe doing so.

—Bloomberg