We, the understated members of the Astoria small business community, ask you to consider the following measures to help our struggling establishments. While we understand the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19, our restaurants, coffee shops, and barshave suffered deep financial strain from this crisis. Expanded outdoor dining has helped cushion the blow some, but many still face financial ruin as the calendar turns to fall. Even now, we're barely breaking even. We would have preferred to meet with your representatives to find a solution, but have seen few government resources beyond SLA inspectors. In absence of that outreach, we make the following suggestions to enable safe indoor dining:

• Create guidelines for building HVAC systems, so that we restaurant owners have a clear understanding of how to ensure air is properly filtered;
• Provide a list of common-sense protocols to make indoor dining as safe as possible, such as plexiglass barriers between tables, virtual menus, and contactless ordering.

These are simple actions that will keep people safe while allowing us to provide meals, jobs, and other benefits for the community we love. Please contact Council Member Costa Constantinides, who has agreed to support these measures, at costa@council.nyc.gov or 718-274-4500 if you would like to discuss this issue further.