A little under a dozen small-business owners on Tuesday told Sen. Elizabeth Warren they are facing a mixture of COVID-19-related issues as they bounce back from the global pandemic in 2021. 

Warren joined Mayor Kim Driscoll, elected officials and mostly local restaurant and café owners seated around a table set up outside the Adriatic Restaurant for the early-afternoon conversation in downtown Salem. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the local tourism, hospitality and restaurant industry.  

“Every single restaurant owner – even some here – has been standing on their head to do whatever they need to do to stay alive,” Driscoll told Warren, who sat next to the mayor at the head of a white-clothed table.  “Folks are really trying to hang on, and our goal last spring was to make sure everybody makes it to this spring.” 

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