Taken from the state website: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/opentexas.aspx#restbar

Restaurants & Bars
Bars & Bar Patrons
(All bars and similar establishments that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages are required to close at 12:00PM June 26, 2020. These businesses may remain open for delivery and take-out, including for alcoholic beverages, as authorized by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.)

They are probably struggling to stay open and keep their families fed. Since closing the bars, numbers have continued to rise. Bars weren’t the issue. Maybe leave them be.

kbates2; You are right. If they get the virus, leave them be to face the consequences. Luckily, I personally don't associate with people who are frequent bar-hoppers.

A lot of businesses and employees are struggling now, what makes bar special? They contribute to all the DWI crashes, alcoholism and offer nothing of positive value to society. The really sad part is that the 311 call takers insisted bars could be open, denied or didn't know about the closure orders. No wonder our city is such a mess. George, you're right but sadly bar goers who are infected spread it to others and eventually to you and me. If kids can't go to schools and malls are closed, bars can just closed too.

I think they should just concentrate on making schools safe to open again, as the top (and utmost) priority. Bars are the lowest priority on the totem pole of priorities.

Schools won't open until the virus is controlled. No teacher is going to go back into a classroom with 30+ vectors of disease and risk exposing her/himself and their family and friends to the virus. Yes, we would all like to rollback the clock to January 2020. Whether you start with bars or churches or both, we have to stop close-contact large gatherings of people in closed spaces if we want to stop the spread. Stopping the spread is at the top of my totem pole.

BTW, the Super Neighborhood Alliance will hold a virtual meeting (Comcast Channel 16) at 6:30 on 8/10 at which time there will be a discussion of Covid-19 in Houston and impact on the school systems. Open to the public to view.

Thanks Kay for the meeting viewing information.
Of course stopping the spread is the number one TASK to fulfill.

In terms of priority of what needs to open and how to open... Common sense would tell one's self to think before going to a bar in the atmosphere we are in. If anything was to open, bars and strip clubs are still at the bottom of the trash heap for me. If there was a way to open Schools and Churches, I'd want to focus on how to circumvent those health risks; ...just sayin'

People who own bars are not bad people and their children Need food just as much as any other business. You say a lot of businesses and employees are struggling but they are t closed with no income (for the most part, those that are I truly sympathize with). To say that churches should open over any other business just shows bias. Do you think any congregation of any belief should open or only a few select that you think are valid? Not trying to sound like I’m attacking any person or any faith, I just think broad strokes closure of any type is misguided and likely to hurt more than help. Logical targeted limitations make sense. Deciding that one person’s livelihood or beliefs are substandard to your own is a cop out. Not at all a SJW either, I just hate that I can go to Bed Bath and Beyond and be on the same aisle with 50 people to buy a new matching Loofah but be told that other pursuits are unnecessary and dangerous.

No argument from me about the need to open vital services but I doubt the folks going to bars have much common sense and yes, I would vote that bars and strip clubs be closed permanently. If just one in a club is infected and spreads it to others they just go out in the community and continue the spread. There is no effective contact tracing happening in Houston and by the time some people get their test results back, the quarantine period has ended so it's pointless. If they have it, they have spread it.

call 832-839-6941 to report, they WILL close them down!!!

I called that number, the person who answered could not have been more disinterested, took the name and address of the bar and hung up. The bar was open Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

To kbates2, people who go to stores are wearing masks, usually have little to no close contact with others, and do not spend hours inside in contact with others. That is not true in bar settings. I know too many non-bar employees who are unemployed to ever think bar employees are more deserving than others. Which bar do you own or frequent?

I am not saying that any one person is more deserving than others Kay. A lot of industries have contracted due to the economic fallout but I don't know of many that are being forced to close. If they are, I don't fault them either for trying to support their families and I am not going to call the cops on them for it like some holier than thou crusader. I think that the general comments that somebody that goes to a bar lacks common sense is a bit ridiculous. What makes somebody that goes to a bar any less likely to have common sense than somebody that attends any other gathering of people (protest, restaurant, home depot, drive in movies, park, church)? Again, you are obviously biased against bars because you don't go, that is fine but why should families of bar owners and employees suffer due to your bias? I have been to many stores and I don't feel any safer there than I do at a well prepared business of any type.