That rate has been much higher in Cleveland due to population declines. His research shows that 37% of gay bars and clubs nationwide closed between 20. Greggor Mattson, A professor of LGBTQ+ social history at OberlinEven with such events, remaining open before the pandemic was difficult for many such establishments, says Greggor Mattson, a professor of LGBTQ+ social history at Oberlin. And while most people obeyed mask mandates and social-distancing rules, others resisted the health orders. Social-distancing requirements limited the number of people who could be served and fear of COVID-19 restrained the number who wanted to be. There were new expenses-masks, sanitizers, signage.Įvents that bring customers and additional revenue to town – like CLAW, the national annual leather event downtown-were canceled. But the subsequent reopening in May posed further challenges. Like other gay bar owners in town, Briggs and his husband had other sources of income to keep the lights on through the three-month shutdown. “The bills didn’t stop just because we were closed,” says Briggs. The Payroll Protection Program eventually helped cover employee wages for Vibe and other gay bars in Cleveland, but business owners had to dig into their own pockets to cover other expenses: internet, utilities, maintenance costs. “We lose money, that’s one thing, but I was really freaking out about my employees,” Kevin Briggs says. They’ve often survived by tapping federal COVID relief for small businesses and by coming up with programming that has appealed to patrons’ desires for COVID-safe entertainment.īriggs remembers the anxiety he felt when he first learned of the shutdown, long before vaccines were available. Vibe, and the handful of Cleveland gay bars and nightclubs in business before the pandemic, remain open. Would the pandemic add to these closures? Not in Cleveland. Kevin Briggs and his husband John, owners of Vibe Bar & PatioGay bars and nightclubs in Cleveland and nationally had been closing at high rates for more than a decade before the pandemic, according to research by an Oberlin College professor. He and his husband John had owned Vibe Bar & Patio, a gay bar on Lorain Avenue near West 117 th Street, for only about a year.Įarly in the pandemic, they didn’t know how long the shutdown would last or if their fledgling business would survive it. Looking back at the past though photos incites nostalgia and an appreciation for how far we’ve come.When Ohio Governor Mike DeWine ordered bars and clubs to shut down in March 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Kevin Briggs panicked. Throughout the years, Ohio has seen a great deal of change.
If you’re a child of the ’80s, you know how much the world has changed - and Ohio is the prime example of this. What are some other unique periods in Ohio history? This video includes street scenes, the Ohio State University’s Oval and Mirror Lake, downtown Columbus, and the construction of the underground parking garage beneath the Ohio Statehouse grounds. The best way to get an idea of what 1960s Columbus, Ohio, was like is to take a look at this footage of Columbus in 1964-65, which shows how much the city has evolved over time. The downtown area was being altered constantly to make way for a changing lifestyle that involved a rapid increase in automobile use. Ohio State University played a major role in life and suburban sprawl had only just begun. In the 1960s, Columbus was already a major metropolis. One of the places that looked very different between 19 is Columbus. Ohio in the 60s was more farmland than it is today, with our larger cities more pronounced and the suburbs still decades away from truly taking off.