Turnabout: Ferry Building, declared a transportation hub rather than a mall, can reopen.
Open or closed? Businesses face abrupt changes
On Wednesday, the Ferry Building was a mall, and it was closed.
By Thursday, the San Francisco food emporium had transformed, by bureaucratic fiat, into a transportation hub, and it was open.
The twisting fate of the Ferry Building encapsulates the onagain, offagain experience of businesses under the Bay Area’s already tenuous reopening. One county after another has made its way to California’s watch list, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tool for reining in parts of the state where the coronavirus is raging unchecked.
On Thursday, San Francisco and Napa County, which had been eyeing their way off the list, had their hopes dashed when their case numbers went in the wrong directions. San Francisco’s earlier arrival on the list prompted its enclosed shopping centers — which had only recently reopened — to close again.
The Ferry Building informed shoppers on its website Wednesday that the city had ruled it was an indoor mall, and its interior shops had to close their counters and limit operations. The next day, it announced a reprieve: The state had declared it a transportation terminal, subject to a different set of rules.
The waterside market hall and the city’s other indoor malls had another path to reopening. San Francisco, along with Napa County, was just 24 hours away from moving off the watch list by showing improved performance on coronavirus test
results, hospitalizations and other health measures.
Moving off the list would, in theory, pave the way for more economic activity to resume. But state and local health officials have given sometimes conflicting messages on what happens after a county leaves the watch list, compounding businesses’ frustrations with the state’s startstop reopening.
The California Department of Public Health said this week that the state’s health officer, Dr. Sonia Angell, will decide when businesses in watchlisted counties can consider reopening — an important clarification for the 35 counties that have been forced to tighten regulations under a July 13 order by the governor. Barber shops, nail salons, gyms and indoor shopping malls are among the types of establishments affected under the recent order.
“Initially, it was a threeweek minimum, but that has seemed to evolve, and we are waiting for further guidance from the state on what reopening may look like,” said Molly Rattigan, deputy county executive officer of Napa County. “In short, we haven’t been provided the next steps or metric points from the state.”
The state health department puts a county on its watch list after the county fails to meet any one of the five established thresholds regarding coronavirus rates or hospitalizations. The county may come off the watch list by meeting the thresholds in all five categories for three consecutive days.
Once off the watch list, it’s anyone’s guess.
“We cannot speculate on how that order may be modified,” the state health department said.
The watch list has led to abrupt closures besides the Ferry Building’s brief shutdown.
Barbershops, hair salons and gyms in Santa Clara County had reopened for a matter of hours on Monday before being told they had shut down again, which they did two days later. Napa wineries had to close their indoor seating this month, after vintners went to great lengths to comply with rigorous sanitation and distancing rules.
Alameda County and San Francisco haven’t allowed gyms or personal care operations to reopen. That has frustrated some business owners — especially when San Francisco moved to permit hair and nail salons to resume operations in late June, only to pull back days before the expected reopening. A conservative approach has had the upside of moderating the impact of the state watch list.
“We do not intend to open any new sectors at this time, and will continue to monitor developments in state and local indicators to inform next steps,” said Neetu Balram, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department.
At the Ferry Building, managers said they have enhanced cleaning procedures, required face coverings for all staff and patrons, expanded curbside pickup and delivery, set up hand sanitizing stations throughout the marketplace, established oneway lanes to control foot traffic, set up entryways so visitors don’t have to touch handles or push doors, and “maximized use of outside air.”
Visitors are advised to keep a 6foot distance from others while shopping, officials said.