San Francisco Leaders Cheer Reopening as COVID-19 Circumstances Fall – NBC Bay Space
San Francisco will begin reopening more parts of its economy starting Wednesday, including indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms, an upbeat London Mayor announced when California gave seven counties the green light thanks to declining rates of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and Deaths.
“This is the beginning of a great time in San Francisco, saving you money by not buying plane tickets to visit other places. You can enjoy your city right here now, ”said Breed under the blue skies of Pier 39, a popular tourist area in picturesque Fisherman’s Wharf.
The announcement came almost a year after the San Francisco Bay Area imposed the country’s first lockdown, closing thousands of businesses and forcing residents inside.
San Francisco, with a pre-pandemic population of 900,000, has one of the lowest case and death rates in the country with more than 34,000 cases since the pandemic began and 422 deaths.
San Francisco will begin reopening more parts of the economy starting Wednesday, including indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms, Mayor London Breed told Breed on Tuesday. Pete Suratos reports.
City financial analysts noted that residents have stayed home more than people in other California cities and even in other equally strict counties in the Bay Area, contributing to good public health but also a poor economy.
Most of the state is still limited to outdoor restaurants and museums, including the densely populated boroughs of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego to the south.
San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Napa counties in the Bay Area join four other counties that move out under the most restrictive rules in the state, including reopening indoor dining rooms and movie theaters with a capacity of 25% or up to 100 Open people and gyms and yoga studios with a capacity of 10%. Museums, zoos and aquariums can be opened indoors with a capacity of 25%.
While some sectors were allowed to reopen after case numbers dropped in the summer, operations in San Francisco resumed in early December when the positivity rate rose across the country.
Outdoor dining, outdoor museums, and some indoor and outdoor personal services reopened in late January after the state canceled its regional stay-at-home order, but the economic toll has been grim.
Housing and commercial rents have plummeted as technicians who could work from anywhere fled to other parts of the state and county that were cheaper and had more leeway. Downtown restaurants that once fed crowds of hungry office workers and tourists for lunch have struggled.
Tourism is also struggling, as airline ticket purchases to San Francisco in late October and November fell 80% year-over-year – much worse than the US average – the city’s financial analysts said in a January report.
Breed on Tuesday urged residents to continue to wear masks and maintain proper social distance, even as it encouraged them to explore the city and pump money into the local economy.
“When your waiter comes to your table, put on your mask. When you go to the bathroom, put your mask on, ”she said.
Alcatraz Island, another top tourist attraction for the city, is slated to reopen in mid-March, said Julian Espinoza, spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which also includes Alcatraz.
Breed also announced on social media that another iconic San Francisco landmark will return sometime this year: the rattle of cable cars.
“Cable cars are part of the fabric of San Francisco. They attract tourists, they help our economy, and I won’t just make them go away, “she said.
The districts of El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc and San Luis Obispo were also allowed to reopen on Tuesday.
As more things reopen, Governor Gavin Newsom urges his case to resume classroom learning and urges the state’s public schools to raise $ 2 billion in funding, part of one that he announced with lawmakers Reopening agreements are.
It provides additional funding for districts starting classroom reopening April 1, starting with the youngest classes and students with special needs.
The majority of California’s K-12 public school classes have been closed for a year, including San Francisco, which had to sue its own school district to begin talks about returning children to schools.
Though his plan wouldn’t tell districts to reopen schools, Newsom has urged schools to work harder to get kids back into the classroom as vaccinations spike and positivity rates remain low. He said Tuesday the state’s 7-day positivity rate had dropped to just 2.3% – a record low, the health department said. Nearly 52,500 people have died in the state of nearly 40 million.
“Try it out,” Newsom said Tuesday after a school tour. “We can do the data that backs up science.”
The state’s two largest teacher unions have largely praised the deal, but teachers in Los Angeles called the plan an attempt to force schools to reopen, which would put still unvaccinated teachers at risk.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents California’s largest school district, said it was “a recipe for spreading structural racism”.
“If you make funding dependent on schools reopening, that money will only go to white and wealthier and healthier school communities,” union leader Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a statement.
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AP reporters Olga R. Rodriguez and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California also contributed to this story.
