SAN DIEGO – On the coastal avenues of San Diego County, restaurants teem with commerce, while customers with sunglasses enjoy cocktails and bar food outdoors.
Sandwich boards on the sidewalks announce massage parlor services that have been closed for months. Some Southern California gyms are allowing muscles to be built indoors. And tribal casinos welcome players.
As the pandemic reaches new heights in California, many residents, tourists and business owners are doing the opposite of what is needed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, experts say. They are challenging the rules for staying at home, recently extended until hospitalizations subside, which prohibit dinners and shops and non-essential services.
“I have to support my family,” said Brian Gruber, owner of Notorious Burgers, a restaurant in Carlsbad open for outdoor dining. “I feel like these small businesses that remain open are in the same boat.”
Carlsbad, a coastal community in northern San Diego County, has been a focus of disobedience despite the threat of fines. In San Diego’s Miramar neighborhood, a stage collapsed at an illegal New Year’s Eve party in a warehouse, officials said, injuring three people.
Two beach neighborhoods in San Diego, Pacific Beach and La Jolla, are full of customers.
In North Park, Rudford’s, around 1938, is on the verge of permanent closure, said owner Jeff Kasha. As a result, he said he plans to reopen the restaurant on Saturday.
“I don’t think we can survive another closure, so we have to challenge,” he said.
“We didn’t have Christmas,” added Kasha. “I didn’t buy gifts for my children.”
For entrepreneurs like Kasha and Gruber, the financial consequences are real. The California Restaurant Association said in August that thousands of restaurants had closed permanently and 900,000 to 1 million restaurant employees had been laid off or licensed since March.
Temecula, a town in Riverside County, became famous for breaking the rules, and in Orange County, a bar owner was accused Thursday of “operating illegally,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
Orange County prosecutors also claim that Luisza Giulietta Mauro, manager of the Westend Bar in Costa Mesa, tried to prevent a police officer from entering on December 12.
“It is unacceptable for a company repeatedly [flout] regulations and continue operating without even attempting to institute any mitigating measures designed to save lives, “Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
In early December, the sheriff’s departments in Orange and Riverside counties indicated that home inspection would not be prioritized. In San Diego County, sheriff’s deputies accompany health inspectors as they deliver cease and desist orders to companies that fail to comply with obligations. Los Angeles authorities cracked down on allegedly illegal party houses.
Authorities in the Los Angeles area contended with a New Year’s Eve concert and service organized by Christian activist Sean Feucht, who earlier in the day conducted evangelism for homeless people in a city park. He also organized a meal distribution event on Skid Row. Many of his followers avoided wearing masks.
The governor’s office could not be reached on Friday to comment on alleged violators and law enforcement efforts, although it is up to cities and counties to enforce state orders.
“The California Department of Public Health emphasizes the importance of continuing mitigation efforts to prevent the transmission of COVID-19,” the department said by email.
San Diego County health officials reported a record daily number of virus-related deaths on Thursday at age 62, and at least four people were diagnosed with a more communicable variant of Covid-19, known as B.1.1.7 , first discovered in the UK.
Some hospitals in the area were running out of space in the morgue, as county health officials used refrigerated trailers to store excess bodies.
In Los Angeles County, where 207 coronavirus-related deaths were reported on Friday, many hospitals were overbooked, with some using makeshift intensive care units in gift shops and pediatric wards.
The disregard for the rules in San Diego inspired the newly elected mayor Todd Gloria to order “stronger enforcement for those who blatantly and blatantly defy local and state health orders” tweeted.
“Failure to comply with any of the provisions of these orders constitutes an imminent threat and threat to public health, and is a public nuisance and endangers the life or property of the inhabitants of the city,” says the order.
