New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020
nypost.com
outbreak
By AlEx TAylor
and AmANdA WoodSCrowds showed up
Wednesday in support of
the co-owner of a Staten Is-
land bar arrested the night
before for running his es-
tablishment in defiance of
COVID-19 restrictions.
Daniel Presti, 34, was re-
leased with a series of tickets
after allegedly being uncoop-
erative when officers issued
Mac’s Public House viola-
tions for flouting city and
state orders, officials said
Wednesday morning.
Dozens of people, some
carrying American flags, de-
scended on the site Wednes-
day night shouting, “F--k An-
tifa!” and “Trump! Trump!”
“Where is your backbone?
Where is your morality?”
one protester shouted
through a speaker. “Don’t tell
me you’re protecting my
rights! What are you here
for? This is the devil’s work.”
Presti was arrested for ob-
structing governmental ad-
ministration and also has
been charged with multiple
violations of city and state
laws, according to New York
City Sheriff Joseph Fucito.
The business — which
called itself an “autonomous
zone” in a nod to the anti-
cop protesters who took
over a section of Seattle in
June — has received numer-ous complaints for indoor
dining in a coronavirus “or-
ange zone” and operating
past the 10 p.m. curfew im-
posed by Gov. Cuomo’s ex-
ecutive order.
The state last week yanked
the bar’s license to sell
booze. Plainclothes deputies
went inside the establish-
ment at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday
and ordered food in ex-
change for a mandatory $
“donation,” Fucito said.
Uniformed deputies went
in an hour later and found
14 people inside the pub, the
majority eating and con-
suming alcoholic beverages.
About 50 angry support-
ers of the bar descended on
the establishment as offi-
cers executed their order.
Deputies also issued tick-
ets to bartender Yareth
Urkonis, 28, cook Matthew
D. Soto, 31, and eatery attor-
ney Louis Gerolmino, 55.
[email protected]Backers pour
in for SI pub
Cheers: Supporters on Staten Island rally Wednesday at Mac’s
pub, which had been kept open by co-owner Daniel Presti (below).Photos: Steve WhiteBy STEvEN NElSoN,
EBoNy BoWdEN
and BErNAdETTE HogANThe first 170,000 doses of Pfizer’s
coronavirus vaccine are set to be
delivered by the federal govern-
ment to New York by mid-Decem-
ber — then it will be on Gov. Cu-
omo to get them distributed.
“We expect, if all safety and effi-
cacy approvals are granted, those
first doses will arrive by Dec. 15,”
Cuomo said Wednesday during an
Albany press briefing. “The vacci-
nation program is really the end-
game here.”
But Cuomo, who has cast doubts
on the Trump administration’s
safety standards for a vaccine andplans to distribute it, again poured
cold water on the news by saying
New York’s rollout would be “lim-
ited by the amount of federal fund-
ing we get.”
Two Trump administration
sources, however, were left baffled
by Cuomo crying poor, noting that
the state is sitting on millions of
dollars in unclaimed federal funds
that are earmarked for vaccine dis-
tribution.
“It is there for them [state and lo-
cal governments] to take,” one
source told The Post.
Cuomo actually has more than
$7.5 million available for state vac-
cine-distribution preparations but
hasn’t yet touched a cent, the
sources said.New York City separately has
nearly $6.6 million in its own vac-
cine-preparedness allotment and
also had drawn $0 as of Monday,
the sources said.
Bill Neidhardt, a spokesman for
Mayor de Blasio, said the city “will
absolutely utilize these funds to
support COVID vaccine distribu-
tion and intends to use the funding
in full” but added the total cost will
far outstrip the current federal
commitment.
The federal allocations for states
and major cities to prepare for
COVID-19 vaccine distribution
were announced on Sept. 23, using
funding from the federal CARES
Act. The funding is held by the
Centers for Disease Control andNow if Cuomo would
just stop his griping