In Suburban Chicago, Residents Practice Social Distancing While Supporting Local Business

EVANSTON, ILL.—“Keep Calm and Carry Out” is the exhortation on bright blue signs popping up in restaurant windows across Evanston, a suburb north of Chicago.

The signs, produced by the City of Evanston, announce that, even though Illinois has formally been under a coronavirus-related “stay at home” order since March 21, you can still support local restaurants and their employees through a devastating economic slowdown.

Business so far has been less than brisk at a number of these places, but some hope for an uptick as word gets out. An independent coffee house, only a block from my apartment in downtown Evanston, is the only nearby store of its kind to remain open for take-out. “It’s been slow,” the lone employee in the store told me yesterday. “I’m not sure how many people even know we’re open.”

By contrast, the closest Starbucks still in operation, a drive-through three miles from my home, had a 30-minute line of cars spilling out onto the street on my most recent visit. Clearly the power of their brand is providing them an advantage not immediately available to independent establishments.

Local grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Jewel Osco are well-stocked and reasonably busy at most hours, yet not so much as to prevent social distancing. Toilet paper is restocked on occasion but is still snapped up quickly, an obsession that may end as jittery people begin to have faith again in the great American supply chain. The Whole Foods has also reserved a one-hour window, from 8-9 a.m., for customers who are older or who have disabilities.

For the most part, Evanstonians do seem to be keeping calm. Stay-at-home orders in states like Illinois are, after all, a good deal more flexible than the lockdowns across China’s Hubei province. And in Manila, a friend tells me, “We have what’s called an HQP (home quarantine pass) issued by the local government, that authorizes one person per household to go to shop for food or go to the bank.”

Here, by contrast, no one stops to question you if you venture out to buy food, or to go for a walk or jog. And this past Wednesday afternoon, as the temperature reached an unseasonably warm 57 degrees, many headed for the shore of Lake Michigan and the parks and beaches lining it. People of all ages rode bicycles, jogged and strolled. Children raced around, at times a bit too close to older citizens sitting on nearby benches. For the most part, though, it seemed like a civilized attempt to get a respite from self-isolation without endangering other human beings.

Further south, in Chicago, people apparently were far less well-behaved, pouring onto public spaces and not making much effort to respect social-distancing rules. The result was a crackdown by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who yesterday closed many parks and lakefront areas and rebuked her less conscientious citizens.

The situation brings to mind words that Eleanor Cummins wrote in Vox a few days ago: “The world has officially separated into two camps: the rule followers, observant of social distancing and hopeful of flattening the curve; and the risk-takers, who have been storming the world’s beaches, bars, and burger joints in spite of the coronavirus — and government and public health efforts to curtail its spread.”

Yet even among the “rule followers,” there is legitimate disagreement on what constitutes proper rule-following. Is buying a take-out or drive-through latte an irresponsible indulgence at a time like this, given the number of door handles and objects you’re likely to touch along the way? Does “stay at home” mean stay at home without any exception short of a medical emergency? Should ordinary citizens’ efforts to soften the economic brunt for local restaurants take a back seat to making every effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus? Should economic support for affected businesses be left to our governments during this period?

In China, such difficult questions don’t require a response by ordinary citizens, because they’re answered with decisive, punishing force by the government and its agencies. In Evanston, in Chicago and across the U.S., they are being answered in myriad ways by people balancing a sense of duty toward public health, a concern for affected businesses and employees and a desire to maintain some measure of personal autonomy.