A line outside the Turkey Leg Hut in Houston on a Saturday in August.
Photographer: Michael Starghill for Bloomberg BusinessweekFeature
Houston Had an All-American Pandemic Response: Ignore Until It’s Too Late
The city knows about disasters. It’s got a world-renowned medical center. It saw what happened in New York. And it still couldn’t stop Covid-19.
It’s Friday night in Houston: 9:30, 102F, 90% humidity, and the patio at Flava Restaurant & Bar is packed. Friends are sucking on hookahs. Waitresses hustle by in booty shorts. Someone climbs on a picnic table to twerk.
The place looks over capacity. Owner Louis Watson knows it. Houston Covid Task Force Chief Keith Kennedy knows it. And judging from the expression on his face when Kennedy rolls down his tinted window, the valet knows it, too.