For many in S.F., risks still too great
Despite county’s move to red tier, treading ‘lightly’ order of the day
Red may be the new purple in San Francisco, but not everyone is ready to rush back inside to eat, drink and be as close to merry as you can be during a pandemic.
San Francisco was among the California counties planning to shift away from the most restrictive pandemic level this week. Santa Clara and Napa counties are also moving into the red tier, joining Marin and San Mateo counties.
Starting Wednesday morning, bars and restaurants can reopen for indoor service with reduced capacity. Stores, malls, movie theaters, gyms and zoos can reopen too, also with capacity limits.
But many San Franciscans said Tuesday they would wait and see.
“Life is full of risks that are worth taking, and I’m not sure I need to be taking this one,” said Tamsin Smith, pulling weeds in front of her house in Noe Valley. “Bars and restaurants need to make a living, I understand that. But I don’t need to eat at an indoor restaurant. If I want to eat indoors, I can eat at home.”
But not every establishment will do it, and not every customer will venture inside the ones that do.
At the Starbucks coffee bar on 24th Street in Noe Valley, manager Megan Walker said the store employees had voted not to reinstall the chairs for indoor seating, not just yet.
“We decided to tread lightly,” she said. “The company is not pressuring us. We can do what works for us and our comfort level. We decided we’re not ready to have people gather yet.”
Coffee customer Sean Filips said he was looking forward to taking an indoor seat at his favorite restaurants once again, but that his wife, Faviana, didn’t share his eagerness.
“She’s more paranoid,” Filips said. “She’s not ready. We have a favorite Spanish restaurant. I might be able to get her to go there with me. I don’t know.”
Filips said he has worked throughout the pandemic as an internet service installer, visiting scores of homes without incident.
“I haven’t had any issues,” he said. “I think this whole thing is exaggerated. But my wife doesn’t.”
Inside the Rabat shoe store across the street, manager Saniya Talhouk said she planned to avoid restaurants, for now.
“I’m not going to an indoor restaurant until I get my shots,” she said. “I have elderly parents. It’s not worth it.’’
With the restrictions lifting, a friend made a reservation and asked her out to a steak dinner. Talhouk turned it down.
“There’s too much pressure to reopen,” she said. “It’s a circus. It’s ridiculous. We’re making progress, but it doesn’t make any sense to rush toward the light at the end of the tunnel and trip in a puddle.”
Across the street at the Just for Fun stationery shop, clerk Tomás Aragón Jr., said the store had “no plans to change what we’ve always done.”
“Anyway, I don’t want to do anything to go against what my father says,” said Aragón, whose dad, Dr. Tomás Aragón, happens to be the head of the California Department of Public Health and San Francisco’s former health officer.
Increasing the number of customers allowed inside probably won’t mean much because the store rarely has more than three or four customers at any one time, except during the holidays. The competition from online sales has hurt every bit as much as the pandemic. Aragón will keep an eye on the number but said that people who visit a store such as Just for Fun, with its toys and rainbow wooden spoons and German fountain pens and designer kites, are “not coming in for the product but for the experience.”
At Pier 39, where Mayor London Breed was announcing the coming restaurant changes and trying to whet appetites for them, the noon crowd strolled the shops and eateries. Many outdoor restaurants, such as Pier Market, appeared to be full to overflowing.
Will Snyder, a Las Vegas resident visiting San Francisco for a friend’s birthday, said he was excited that more things were open than he had originally anticipated.
“I just did the tour around the bay, and now I’m going to check out the crooked street,” he said, referring to Lombard Street. “If I can get into museums, then I will.”
Others, though, said they would continue following stricter guidelines.
Brandon Miller and Khristy Valech, a Sacramento couple strolling the pier to celebrate their first anniversary, said they weren’t quite comfortable eating indoors just yet.
“I’d rather be safe,” Miller said.
Celeste Carrillo, visiting from Merced, said she was excited to see a movie in a real theater, the kind with reclining seats and coming attractions, even though she had no idea which movie she wanted to see. Buying junk food at the concession stand — she’s excited about that, too.
“It’s been tiring being locked up and cooped up at home,” Carrillo said.