Is Rensselaer County really ready to open?

El Cheapo Media's front page headline this morning served up a punch to Rensselaer County's collective gut.

County Executive Steve McLaughlin, while still emphasizing the social distancing guidelines, isn't waiting for Phases 2-up. He wants the businesses in the county open. Now.

Claiming he's tired of "games" from Governor Andrew Cuomo, McLaughlin, in his Friday presser, basically said he wasn't waiting around for an official "green light", if you will, from the state Capitol.

We can frame McLaughlin's message to Cuomo via an old Kinks record from 1965, "Tired of Waiting For You":



According to El Cheapo, Troy has a total of 171 cases of COVID-19. McLaughlin said that there are just 69 active cases county-wide, which means El Cheapo, predictably, didn't finish doing the math.

Hair salons & barber shops, because they're licensed by the state, remain on the sidelines until they get the go-ahead from the Governor's office. However, opening businesses en masse over the next week or two will put the city at further risk for a new wave of COVID-19 cases.

Let's give McLaughlin some credit here. Like everyone else, he's concerned about the economy, but unlike a certain Manchild-in-Chief in Washington, he's trying to do things rationally, despite the risk being taken. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for now. The overall figure on coronavirus cases in the county is still roughly half of what Albany County has as of Friday. Most of the virus cases, of course, are down in New York City, so, somehow, upstate is doing something right.......