Businesses run out of patience
Some shops weigh mounting losses with risk of defying shutdown rules
Daniel Liriano remained patient after shutting down his Lion Style Barbershop & Salon in Miramar on March 20. On Tuesday, he reached his breaking point.
Liriano, 45, began taking clients illegally.
As word spread, word also got around to Miramar officials. By Tuesday afternoon, Miramar police officers issued Liriano a $65 citation.
Liriano reopened Wednesday, prepared to keep paying fines. A Miramar police officer came by in the middle of the day with one for $165. Later, the officer returned and threatened to fine each of his barbers. Fearing that they might lose their licenses, Liriano finally folded.
“I’m just trying to work,” he said.
Around the region, the South Florida Sun Sentinel discovered non-essential businesses opening their doors to customers, gambling that they will be undetected by code compliance officers and police. Some have been cited for infractions.
Those gambles could soon be put to rest in Palm Beach County, but will continue a bit longer for shopkeepers to the south. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Palm Beach County will be able to open salons and barbershops, as well as restaurants at 25 percent capacity. Businesses in Miami-Dade will have to wait until May 18, and Broward is expected to follow that same timetable.
Operating without permission
Two massage parlors — Spa Latinas Spa in Fort Lauderdale and Golden Eyes Spa in Pompano Beach — are among businesses that the Sun Sentinel was able to confirm have continued operating despite orders not to.
On Thursday afternoon, a woman who answered the phone at Spa Latinas Spa cheerily said appointments for massages were available. When asked how the business was able to legally operate given the shut down rules, she hung up.
“Are u police or city inspector?” she asked in a text message.
A woman who answered the phone at Golden Eyes Spa in Pompano Beach said the spa was accepting walk-in appointments on Thursday afternoon.
She said the spa was allowed to operate because there were fewer than 10 people in the business at any time. She said each client wore a mask and stations were cleaned after each massage.
When asked whether the spa had received permission from the county to operate, she declined to answer. She provided the first name of an owner who did not respond to a phone call or a voicemail message.
Chaz Adams, a spokesman for the city of Fort Lauderdale, said spas should not be operating in Fort Lauderdale as a result of state, county and city orders. Sandra King, a spokeswoman for the city of Pompano Beach, said she does not believe DeSantis’ order would define a spa as an essential business.
Citations
For businesses caught breaking shut-down rules, citations start around $50 and grow to as high as $500 for repeated infractions. According to officials in several cities, they have been used sparingly.
Pembroke Pines, Pompano Beach, Coconut Creek and Boca Raton city officials said they have issued verbal warnings to businesses, but no citations. Fort Lauderdale has issued 11 citations.
“We really see citations as the last resort,” said Tania Rues, spokeswoman for the Miramar Police Department.
Rues said most businesses have complied with shut-down orders. Officers in Miramar have been dispatched to businesses, but mostly to educate owners as to why they can’t be open. The fines to Liriano’s barbershop this week were an exception, she said, after he was defiant in expressing his intent not to comply with future citations in media interviews.
“We understand that a lot of businesses are going through difficult times,” Rues said. “But we as a law enforcement agency are here to make sure that people are abiding by the orders and laws enacted.”
On Thursday afternoon, a sergeant from the Miramar Police Department met with Liriano to explain the Paycheck Protection Program to him. Afterward, Liriano stood in his empty shop and said that he had already explored those options and learned they likely wouldn’t apply to his business. “I’m probably not going to get any of that help.”
Customers restless, too
Of the 11 citations issued to businesses in Fort Lauderdale between March 21 and May 7, the offenders include a mix of restaurants, bars, real estate offices and short-term vacation rental homes. One of the most common offenses for bars and restaurants — which made up the bulk of the citations — was for allowing patrons to mingle in a bar area.
The fines varied from $150 to $250 but could be waived if the business owner is able to demonstrate that they have corrected their issue within a time frame.
The offending establishments included Drunken Taco and Spazio on Fort Lauderdale Beach and Hunters Bar in Wilton Manors. The Sun Sentinel has received a handful of anonymous tips about other restaurants and bars where patrons seem to be gathered in indoor and outdoor seating areas.
On a drive down Fort Lauderdale Beach and Las Olas Boulevard on Thursday afternoon, a number of bars had patrons with a to-go drink or box of food in hand that seemed to linger, walking a fine line between eat-in and take-out service.
Drunken Taco had a large table blocking its entrance, an act that general manager Freddy Bousquet said was done deliberately to correct its citation on May 5.
Bousquet said that on Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo, his restaurant was flooded with orders. As people waited outside and in the bar area for their orders to be filled, it created a gathering that became hard to control.
The next day Bousquet decided to create a barrier to stop people from getting inside the restaurant at all. “Now there is nowhere for them to stay,” he said.
Nick Mariani, manager of Cigar Republic in Oakland Park, among the businesses cited, said he has had customers order food and a cigar and sit outside in the parking lot on their own beach chairs or mingle near their cars. “Nobody wants to stay home anymore,” he said.
He said the police and city inspectors push store owners to do something about the issue. “They make us become the bullies.” But he said doing so is not always easy for owners who want those same customers to return once things open back up.
‘They are listening’
Friday’s news from DeSantis and county officials indicates that South Florida’s businesses will begin creeping back to some semblance of life this month. Still, South Florida Democratic members of Congress said they are concerned about opening the state too fast.
As legislators continue to argue about the best way forward in the coming days, business owners are left to wait, particularly gyms, salons, barbershops and other similar services in Broward and Miami-Dade.
Liriano met the new developments on Friday with some positivity. “It looks like they are listening,” he said.
For now, he has zero financial prospects. While his landlord gave him a break on half of the rent for May, he said he will still have to come up with the full amount in June.
He worries about his barbers, some of whom he said will be tempted to do house calls to make ends meet, potentially putting themselves in danger. After his initial shut-down in March, he said one of his barbers began to make house calls and was infected with COVID-19. He survived, but spent days hooked up to a respirator.
Liriano said he understands that elected officials need to maintain the safety of others. Safety is a priority for him, too. During his short one and a half day run this week, he allowed only four customers at a time, kept a record of their names and addresses and took temperatures. His four barbers wore masks and gloves, and wiped down stations after each cut.
Liriano said he will take whatever safety steps necessary to bring back a fraction of the revenue he’s lost in nearly two months.
“Just tell me what to do so I can restart my business again,” he said. “You want me to put five masks on? I’ll put five masks on. I’ll do whatever I need to do.”