DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Hundreds of thousands of bikers are expected to turn out for the start of Bike Week on Friday.
Daytona Beach city leaders have put COVID-19 regulations in place but said it’s up to business owners to enforce them.
“I think it’s going to be big. I think it’s going to look like the pandemic never surfaced,” said police Chief Jakari Young, “We’re not out there looking to see how close people are standing together. That’s what the safety plan is supposed to do.”
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Part of this year’s plan is businesses bringing in outdoor vendors must limit inside capacity to 60%, there is an indoor mask mandate and Main Street between A1A and Halifax will be closed to traffic besides motorcycles.
Anyone else wishing to visit the Main Street area is asked to park at the Ocean Center.
Young said there could be fines for breaking the rules from code enforcement, but police won’t be proactively enforcing it.
“If they need us to step in and maybe help clear them out a little bit so they can regain that 60% then we’d be willing to do so,” he said.
Business owners, like Bob Honeycutt at Froggy’s Saloon, are just happy to be open. He said they need the money from this week to keep their doors open, especially after Biketoberfest was canceled.
“We didn’t make any money, we didn’t lose a lot of money but the money we would have made we would have stored through the slow time and so we kind of had to dip into our savings,” Honeycutt said.
Down the street, Daniel Myara, the owner of Cruisin’ Cafe, said this week is crucial. The city is allowing his business to operate at 100% capacity because it will not have outside vendors.
“I think this one is going to hit it and I’m glad the city is letting us do it,” Myara said. “It’s going to be normal. We’re doing all the precautions we got all the sanitation stations ready.”
The regulations and lane closures for cars are in place all through Bike Week which ends March 14.
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