Last Tuesday, local café and bicycle repair shop, 7th and Park, closed their doors to the public in efforts to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. 7th and Park is a family owned local business in Brownsville. The family opened the business three years ago, which serves as a full-service bike shop and café.
Owner of 7th and Park, Graham Sevier-Schultz says one of the main reasons for closing his shop is that he is worried about the exposure his employees have with customers.
Some of my employees live with their families, some of my employees live with parents or grandparents, or visit older family members very frequently, and I was thinking about the exposure my employees might have.
Sevier-Schultz says, some of the employees live with older adults, which according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention website “older adults are at higher risk illness from COVID-19.”
Prior to closing their doors, Sevier-Schultz says he saw a notable drop in frequent customers before the World Health Organization characterized the new coronavirus as a pandemic on March eleventh.
Nursing Junior at U-T-R-G-V-, Lizeth Mireles says the temporary closing of 7th and Park shows how the pandemic is affecting our local economy.
Yeah so, I think local businesses are being impacted the worst, the closing of 7th and Park is very sad and it shows how a coronavirus pandemic is affecting our local economy…
efore closing, Sevier-Schultz says the coffee shop was following the CDC guide for sanitation such as using single use cups and treating everything as a to go order.
Business Graduate student, Felipe Diaz Jr. says he thinks 7th and Park was very proactive to take care of the community.
I think it was a good idea on their part, I think they were very proactive in doing it early talking about 7th and Park I think overall it is a good idea because you have a really wide range of people that go to 7th and Park as in students, but you also have older people that are going…
Sevier-Schultz says he will continue to pay his employees, and hopes to have customers come in once it is “safe” within the next two months.
Reporter Victor Rivero
