Wednesday update

I didn’t watch the Shelby County COVID-19 task force press conference but I have read recaps. Geoff Calkins wrote (subscribers only) that Dr. Randolph, Shelby County Health Officer, was “hopeful and optimistic” about re-opening, and that health department director Dr. Haushalter was cutting the press conferences back to twice a week, no longer feeling it’s necessary to give daily updates. That’s a good sign!

Also, Dr. Randolph sort of expected for his phone to be ringing off the hook with complaints of violations of his Health Order 4, which is the legal document behind Back-to-Business Phase 2. He didn’t get them. He also said that a 78-team youth baseball tournament out in Cordova at GameDay went very well.

However, Dr. Haushalter recommends that any Shelby County residents who traveled to COVID-19 “hotspots” over the Memorial Day weekend self-quarantine. This map will help give you an idea where the hotspots are. New York City, obviously, would be one, as well as New Jersey and probably New Orleans.

Dr. McCullers on the task force said that Memphians need to work on wearing masks in public, a point reinforced by Mayor Strickland’s COVID-19 update. The more people the health officials see wearing masks in public, the more likely they are to agree to a move to Phase 3 on June 8.

A Fox 13 news story on what Memphians did over Memorial Day weekend features Downtown’s own Tawanda Pirtle, of Jack Pirtle’s Fried Chicken, with a cameo by Bloomers from Bardog.

Rizzo’s by Michael Patrick closed at 6 last night so they could give the restaurant a thorough sanitizing prior to the restaurant interior’s re-opening to the public next week. It’s just one of the precautions Chef is taking to keep employees and guests safe. The restaurant will re-open with outside dining and to-go today at noon.

Sabor Caribe out in The Edge is having some construction work done on its front door, and asks that you go to the back entrance on N. Orleans St. to pick up your orders.

The Midtown location of Aldo’s Pizza Pies is hiring servers, expos, and cooks. Email Appmidtown@gmail.com or apply in person.

Chris Herrington offers his best guess on what will become of the remainder of the Grizzlies’ NBA season. The league is considering a single-site location in Orlando. There’s talk of a late July starting point, and there are options for bringing in all 30 teams to finish the season, or just the top 8 teams in the conferences and going straight to the playoffs. There is considerable distance in the standings between the 8 seeds in the East and West (Memphis in Orlando) and the 9th place teams, so there’s a good argument to go straight to the playoffs, reducing the number of personnel brought to the site by almost half.

Don’t throw that unmarked envelope containing a prepaid debit card away! It may be a stimulus payment from the IRS. Look for an envelope from “Money Network Cardholder Services,” with VISA on the front of the card and MetaBank®, N.A. on the back.

Memphis River Parks Partnership will host a Tom Lee Park Engagement Pop-Up event tonight 5:30-7:30 and every Wednesday through the end of June. You’ll be able to chat with the staff and see the park’s updated designs.

Also, the park has its own website now.

Attention Central Gardens residents:

A street racer was charged after he nearly hit an undercover officer cracking down on the racing. His Camaro just missed the officer and hit a police cruiser and a Jeep.

That’s the news for today. Back tomorrow.