Cinema 21 battles with reopening and reclosing

COVID-19 is again surging in Oregon. This week, Governor Kate Brown re-imposed restrictions in 15 counties deemed as “extreme risk” for the virus’s spread. Strict limits on restaurants, businesses, places of worship, and social gatherings went into effect yesterday, and will last at least through May 6thSome businesses had JUST begun expanding service after over a year of closure or reduced capacity. Cinema 21 in Portland had only started showing movies to the general public last week.Today they’re closed, again. But I went down to the indie theater on Thursday afternoon to talk with its longtime owner Tom Ranieri. We sat in the chairs in a dark theater as his staff was getting to open the box office   for the last time before this latest closure. I asked him what it was like opening back up to the public last week.