As California loosens up, local shops feel tied down
Bay Area: Some merchants believed they were allowed to operate again with rest of state
On the first day some merchants across the state got to stretch their legs and start delivery and curbside sales, Bay Area businesses operating under a more restrictive health order voiced confusion and frustration over being held back at least through the end of May.
And at least a few jumped the gun.
Lee’s Florist in Berkeley, which had been accepting delivery orders through its website, briefly reopened for curbside pickup following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Thursday announcement of looser restrictions on retail businesses, just in time for the Mother’s Day rush.
“He specifically said that florists would be able to open for curbside pickup today,” owner Jared Lee said Friday. “So when that happened, we activated the pickup option on our website. Because I didn’t think it was an
unreasonable assumption to follow through on the words of the governor.”
When he learned later that Alameda County still prohibited curbside pickup, Lee deactivated the option — but not before customers already had placed four or five pickup orders.
Deb’s Flower Market in Pleasant Hill was bustling with customers Friday. After weeks of fielding onlineonly orders, owner Johnny Mesquita opened the door to walk-in traffic for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. He said he’d heard it was allowed as long as customers kept 6 feet apart — but that is not the case under Contra Costa County’s order.
“If that’s the guidelines for the Bay Area, we have to follow,” Mesquita said when a reporter told him about the rules. “I wasn’t aware of it, but I am going to close the door.”
And Tesla — which for days in March resisted the Bay Area’s initial shutdown order — on Friday internally announced plans to partly reopen its Fremont plant, citing a sentence in Alameda County health order guidelines to argue that it was allowed as an “energy distribution” manufacturer.
That sets up a potential showdown with health officials who flatly rejected the electric carmaker’s reasoning. Tesla’s intentions do not appear to be allowed under the state’s orders, either.
For the two florists, it was probably a kick in the shins to see Newsom hold his daily news briefing Friday, touting the relaxing of retail restrictions in front of
Twiggs, a Sacramento-area florist the governor said was able to put eight employees back to work, fulfilling flower orders for the Mother’s Day weekend.
“This is just an example of what we hope to be seeing replicated all throughout the state of California,” Newsom said.
Other counties already had jumped in front of the pack. Yuba and Sutter counties were lambasted by Newsom earlier this week as “making a big mistake” by opening up nonessential businesses in defiance of the statewide stay-at-home order. Their reopened shopping mall remains the only one in the state.
Friday, Newsom offered none of his earlier fiery rhetoric at those challenging the state’s rules, instead acknowledging that counties will move at different paces along his four-phase reopening guidelines, based on the varying impact of COVID-19 on their jurisdictions.
“The whole idea is that we will move through Phase 2 together as a state,” Newsom said, while complimenting the Bay Area for its careful approach. “I know there’s deep anxiety people are feeling and desire to reopen.” Where Newsom and Bay Area health officials agree is wanting to see COVID-19 numbers trend down steadily before more significantly relaxing stayat-home restrictions. The governor announced Friday that 81 new deaths were reported the previous day and that virus-related hospitalizations and intensive care unit stays dipped less than a percentage point. The state has recorded more than 62,000 confirmed cases and was approaching 2,600 deaths from the virus.
After staying in lockstep with mostly identical shelter-in-place orders for more than a month, Bay Area counties began to diverge this week.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday said she expects to allow some retailers — such as bookstores, florists and music stores — to reopen for curbside pickup as soon as May 18. Marin County health officials said the same, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo on Friday introduced an ordinance that would give restaurants and other businesses options to expand their operations outdoors.
Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of the famed Green Apple
Books in San Francisco, said he was heartened by the prospect of being able to offer pickup orders, as proposed by Breed.
At the same time, he remains wary of how to proceed and said he wants guidance from local health officials.
“We’d rather wait 10 days or whatever it is,” he said, “and do it safely and do it right than risk the health of our staff or ourselves.”