The Twin Cities saw record restaurant closures in 2020 thanks to the lockdowns
According to the Star Tribune, this year, the Twin Cities has seen at least 94 restaurants close. This is nearly 3 times the number of closings that the Star Tribune reported in 2019.
The pandemic, along with massive restrictions that were famously focused on the restaurant industry, managed to bulldoze multiple establishments out of business. It did not help that in 2020, the Twin Cities also saw looting and destruction from riots as well as a rise in crime.
According to the numbers, the majority of the closures happened during the initial lockdown period. Counting by month, 25 restaurants closed in May alone, and half of all closures occurred between March and June.
Table: Restaurant closures by month, 2020
| Jan | 5 |
| Feb | 1 |
| March | 4 |
| April | 8 |
| May | 25 |
| June | 10 |
| July | 9 |
| August | 6 |
| Sept | 5 |
| Oct | 7 |
| Nov | 5 |
| Dec | 9 |
Source: Star Tribune
It is easy to see why the restaurant industry has been so heavily affected. In March, when Governor Walz initiated the first lockdown, service businesses were the first to close. When the economy reopened, they were last in line, and continued to deal with capacity restrictions.
Yet as I have written before, despite these heavy economic costs, no evidence supports lockdown.
A clearer relationship exists between levels of lockdown stringency and unemployment than between the level of lockdown stringency and COVID-19 health outcomes. In the face of such damning data on the continuing damage that lockdowns continue to exert, especially on the service industry, a policy change is not only necessary but the only logical next step.