Smoke- and ash-filled air has driven away many of the limited customers South Bay businesses had during the coronavirus pandemic, as some companies remain under county orders to operate outside or not at all.
On Monday, business owners, city leaders and faith-based organizations implored the county health department to give them a “fighting chance” to survive the pandemic by allowing indoor operations to resume. The ask comes not only as wildfire smoke has dampened outdoor business, but also as the region braces for the cooler weather that comes with the region’s rainy season.
“You are seeing all of this soot and ash landing on the tables,” Randy Musterer, founder of Sushi Confidential in San Jose and Campbell said. “You're definitely seeing the effect.”
While people are beginning to return slowly, Musterer said the last couple weeks have reminded him of the start of the rainy season as patrons opt to stay home rather than sit outside to eat. He’s eager to be able to serve customers indoors as soon as possible, and said he’s confident he can do it safely.
State officials last week moved Santa Clara County from the highly limiting “Purple Tier” into the less-restrictive “Red Tier” as part of California’s Covid-19 reopening plan. The color-coded system defines what kinds of businesses can be open and with what restrictions. Counties can move through the tiers by increasing testing while the number of people who test positive for the conronavirus decline.
Notably, counties can choose to enact more restrictive rules if local health officials deem it necessary, and Santa Clara County has done that in some areas.
Under its new Red Tier status, Santa Clara County opened museums, zoos, aquariums and gyms with limited capacity. Capacity for shopping malls has also been increased to 50 percent.
But unlike other Red Tier counties, Santa Clara County opted not to open movie theaters, indoor dining or to allow personal services by manicurists and estheticians to resume indoors. The reason, officials said in a statement Monday, is because some activities—namely those where people are indoors without a mask on—are more risky than others.
“Even though the County’s move into the Red Risk Tier is an improvement, under this tier, the presence of COVID-19 in the County is still ‘substantial,’” county officials said in a statement Monday. “We want restaurants to be able to open for indoor dining as soon as it is safe for the public.”
The Struggle
Japanese retailer Muji has permanently shuttered in downtown San Jose, one of many businesses that have closed their doors during the pandemic. (Photo by Janice Bitters)
The Silicon Valley Chamber Coalition hosted elected officials, local business groups, dozens of Bay Area faith organizations and small business owners in a virtual press conference Monday to make a plea for county health officials to change their minds.
“There is no evidence to suggest that aesthetician services are any more risky than medical spas,” said Maya Mansour, who owns The Original Facial Bar in San Jose. “We may be the only business that has not been allowed to operate in any way for six months consecutively.”
Gilroy Chamber President and CEO Mark Turner, who is also the co-chair of the Silicon Valley Chamber Coalition, said the county has achieved its early goals of flattening the curve of new cases and preventing the health system from becoming overwhelmed.
The inconsistencies between county and state guidance are a “recipe for disaster,” he added, urging the county to give business leaders a say in reopening decisions while providing a clear guide on what targets need to be hit for establishments to safely reopen.
“Being closed is not a strategy,” Turner said. “Remaining closed is not a good business plan. You don’t tell entrepreneurs to stand down.”
Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco said Covid-19 will be present for the long haul, with no guarantee that things will return to normal in the near future.
“We need to learn how to live safely and mitigate the risk, rather than shutting down the economy indefinitely,” he said.
A handful of business owners in San Jose and surrounding cities said they’ve struggled since March, when Santa Clara County became the first in the country to issue a shelter-in-place order and shutter non-essential businesses.
Jacqueline Tran, owner of the Polished Salon in San Jose, said the nail salon industry has already had the sanitation protocols in place, such as face masks and frequent hand-washing, long before they were required in other businesses. She said many workers in nail and hair salons are the sole income-earners of their families.
“This isn’t a question of whether or not they have disposable income to spend, this is a matter of their ability to feed their families or be able to afford their rent to keep a roof over their heads,” she said.
Nearly 30 percent of small businesses in the Silicon Valley have either permanently closed or on the verge of doing so since the pandemic began, according to the Silicon Valley Chamber Coalition.
Testing Out
Linda Barman, MD, with a patient at Stanford's drive-through testing express clinic. (Photo by Steve Fisch, via Stanford)
County health officials in a news release Monday said more testing is key to reopening.
The state framework gives counties credit toward their case rate if they test more people than the California-wide average. Using this calculation, the high number of tests performed in the local area gave Santa Clara County a significant credit, which allowed it to move up to the Red Tier.
“Testing is our ticket to fewer restrictions,” said Dr. Jennifer Tong, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. “Fast test results improve the contact tracing work, which keeps our county as safe as possible from Covid-19.”
The county is offering free Covid-19 diagnostic testing throughout the South Bay, at different locations each day. Some locations require an appointment while others allow residents to walk up and are available for those without symptoms, a doctor’s note and regardless of immigration status.
Residents can find all of the sites and testing days on the county’s website and schedule a test at sccfreetest.org.
In the meantime, county officials say they hope residents will support local restaurants and other businesses, just maybe at a distance for now.
“We urge the public to support our restaurants by using restaurant takeout, delivery options, and outdoor dining,” county officials said in a statement. “Pursuant to the Risk Reduction Health Order, we urge our residents to continue to avoid indoor activities whenever possible to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.”
I can not believe you people are letting these “leaders” destroy your life just so you can win an election in November. Just imagine if Trump wins, all this for nothing. How can you be so easily duped. They will buy your houses, they will get your retail space cheap.
They are permanently evicting you, making you dependent forever, can you not see it?
Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? Nothing. They own you.
You are stuck, you are done, just because you hate Trump.
So sad!
Take note, the draconian measures described in this story are attributed to various officials, with not a single elected official identified by name. What the hell happened? I thought politicians were always eager for the public to see their names attached to their activities. What’s behind this sudden outbreak of modesty? What happened to grandstanding, transparency, blowhardedness?
Of course, we know the answer. These sleazebags understand they are ruining lives as they hide in their bunkers and play their dirty politics, and they are, justifiably, afraid that someone whose life has been ruined just might want to ruin theirs.
Why should business owners and faith leaders have to plead to have their constitutional rights respected by our authoritarian overlords? Elected officials took a solemn oath to uphold those rights, which they are violating.
Decision of federal judge today finding Pennsylvania’s lock down edicts unconstitutional.
https://www.scribd.com/document/476017344/Judge-Stickman-s-order-in-Butler-County-v-Wolf#download
The ruling is not controlling regarding the lockdowns in California or locally in Santa Clara County, but it is highly instructive and worth a close read. As the duration of the fraudulent mere fifteen-days-to-slow-the-spread stretches into more than six months and no end in sight, the judiciary is becoming woke to the tyranny. The justification of short-term infringements of civil liberties cannot be used to satisfy long-term indefinite infringements. This was all predictable. The early jurisprudence would be deferential. But later judicial pronouncements are and will be highly critical. The judgment of history will be harsher still.
Let all these morons infect each other & die. I avoid Republicans & religious dupes like they have the plague & now that it’s a matter of life & death I suggest that everyone do the same. The fewer of these imbeciles that there are will make our country a better place for the far more intelligent people who respect COVID-19 health mandates. If these right-wing Trump loving lemmings want to trample each other in their stampede to leave the planet,let’s cheer them on & encourage their abhorrent behavior. Bon voyage & au revoir !