It’s the absurdity that enrages: “In Long Island, customers can sit and eat at the bar six feet apart, but in New York City, no one is allowed near the bar. You can’t order a drink at the bar, let alone eat at the bar.”

If restaurants are dangerous, why are they closed only in New York City, not throughout the state? Why are nearly all of our elected officials silent, shivering in their boots rather than taking a stand for the businesses that make our city run? Our restaurant industry is suffering abuse, and the politicos won’t say anything.

Rafi Hasid, owner of the restaurant 1803 in Tribeca and Miriam in Brooklyn and Manhattan, says he has spent at least $10,000 per restaurant to keep up with the constant regulatory shifts.

“In the beginning,” he recalls, “they said they’re going to allow propane heaters. But then they said you can’t have them on the street side or on the outside of the sidewalk. Then they said you can’t keep the propane tanks on your property and must store them at a different location every night. So that was a wasted purchase.”