To be fair, that was a week ago, at a time when there were no confirmed cases in Austin. The mayor has completely changed his tune: https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/full-interview-mayor-a...

You may say stupid has no party, but the hallmark of stupid is trying to pretend reality doesn't exist so that it fits whatever you said (sharpie'ing out the exponential growth curves won't cut it this time), instead of admitting you were wrong and changing as the facts require.

From that interview, sounds like he's set a headcount but otherwise still wants people to go out:

"We are not saying you shouldn’t go to restaurants, but we certainly don’t want any restaurants with more than 250 people, we have ordered that. If you are in a restaurant, try not to be on top of other people, increase the social distancing, social separation."

I kind of get it. This is going to devastate cafes, bars, clubs, restaurants, and tons of other small businesses. Hell, I doubt our dog boarding place will survive. Until our government steps up and promises replacement dollars, mayors and even governors are in between a rock and a really hard place. These small businesses rarely have a spare 1-2 months of rent, let alone payroll, sitting around.