Amid totalitarian state policies, Illinois residents head to neighboring states to shop

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While state remains shut down, Illinois residents head to neighboring states to shop, eat out

Chicago Sun Times


In the first weekend that Indiana and Wisconsin largely were open for business, many Illinois residents, feeling confident they won’t get sick, crossed state lines to patronize stores, restaurants and bars.

As protesters stood in front of the Thompson Center downtown Saturday calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to “reopen” Illinois, Chicagoans Roberto Mangione and Giovanna Gianfortone trekked 90 minutes northwest to browse the shops and grab a bite to eat in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

“We’ve been locked up. It’s my first weekend off, and we wanted to come up and walk around and have lunch,” said Mangione, who lives in Dunning.

Last week, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers extended stay-at-home order, leaving it up to business owners to decide how and when to reopen, though a number of local governments — including Milwaukee’s and Madison’s — quickly restored some restrictions in their areas.

Still, many businesses in Lake Geneva and other parts of the state were open Saturday. Some had signs asking patrons to social distance and limited how many people could be inside.

Sam Martel of Darien, who was in Lake Geneva for the weekend with his wife Neala to celebrate their wedding anniversary, said Pritzker is in a no-win situation.

“If he opens and people get sick, they will blame him. If he doesn’t open soon, businesses will blame him for putting them out of business,” Martel said. “He should have left it up to the mayors just like [President] Trump left it up to the governors. Instead, people are going to come here and spend money.”

Indiana largely reopened as well. Unlike Wisconsin, where restrictions are left to the individual business owners, restaurants in Indiana are limited to seating a maximum of 50 percent of their capacity.

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