{"id":91131,"date":"2020-05-22T04:12:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T04:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/main-avenue-walk-aims-to-promote-businesses-some-say-its-a-protest\/"},"modified":"2020-05-22T04:12:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T04:12:53","slug":"main-avenue-walk-aims-to-promote-businesses-some-say-its-a-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/main-avenue-walk-aims-to-promote-businesses-some-say-its-a-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Avenue walk aims to promote businesses \u2013 some say it\u2019s a protest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An organized walk down Main Avenue could violate public health orders.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A La Plata County man says he\u2019s organizing a walk Friday night on Main Avenue to show that Durango is open for business, but on social media the event is being called a \u201cpeaceful protest\u201d over public health orders.<\/p>\n

It is unknown how many people may show up for the event, but word of the organized walk has been widely shared on social media, with many saying they plan to attend. If the event grows larger than 10 people, they could be in violation of a statewide public health order, said Claire Ninde, spokeswoman for San Juan Basin Public Health.<\/p>\n

John Avery, a longtime La Plata County rancher who is organizing the event, is asking people to meet at 6 p.m. Friday at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad\u2019s parking lot near McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

From there, Avery said people will walk north on Main Avenue. He encourages people to shop at local businesses and make signs to send a message to tourists that the town is open and ready for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourists make our businesses go,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd (downtown) is the one place we don\u2019t want people to be scared or petrified of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avery said he is not recommending people follow state laws around social distancing, which says people should maintain a 6-foot distance and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.<\/p>\n

And Avery said he\u2019s not asking people to wear face coverings, which will become required Friday within city limits at businesses and public places where 6-foot social distancing cannot be maintained.<\/p>\n

In a recent survey, about 65% of 355 businesses said they support the face-covering requirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not recommending people do anything except people spend money in Durango,\u201d he said. \u201cMy opinion, as a rancher, there\u2019s nothing to be afraid of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninde said if the group grows larger than 10 people, \u201cthey would be in violation of the order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are strongly encouraging social distancing and face coverings as a precaution,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we support the governor\u2019s state order on no gatherings over 10 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

SJBPH does not enforce the public health order. That falls to the Durango Police Department. Cmdr. Jacob Dunlop said the department is aware of the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll monitor it and respond in the most appropriate manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To date, Durango police have not written any citations for violations to public health orders, instead emphasizing education and voluntarily compliance. A planned event like Friday\u2019s has not occurred in Durango since a statewide stay-at-home order went into effect in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Dunlop said.<\/p>\n

Avery said he hopes the walk will \u201ckick off summer\u201d as Memorial Day weekend approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want old-time Durango back, with happy people showing up and not being afraid of anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizer says he won\u2019t encourage social distancing, face coverings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,314,1065,28,29,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-downtown-durango","tag-durango-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91131"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}