PEACE and QUIET
Downtown Sonora clears out with 8 p.m. curfew after protest
After the storm came the calm.
The streets of downtown Sonora were quiet and mostly desolate Wednesday night following a protest for racial justice earlier in the day that drew hundreds of people to Courthouse Square.
A curfew was put in place by the Sonora City Council from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday in response to concerns about people coming back at night to stir up trouble.
The curfew was unanimously approved during an emergency meeting at 5 p.m. that was called less than an hour earlier.
Though the curfew was only for Wednesday night into Thursday morning, the council gave authority to the police chief and city administrator to impose it at their discretion over the next seven days if they feel it's necessary.
Sonora City Adminstrator Mary Rose Rutikanga said a curfew was not imposed for Thursday night.
Mayor Jim Garaventa, who's lived in the city his whole life, said he couldn't remember another time that a curfew was imposed.
Sonora joined a growing list of American cities imposing curfews as a result of the national unrest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died on May 25 in Minneapolis while in police custody.
City Administrator Mary Rose Rutikanga said the curfew applied to all businesses, but Police Chief Turu Vanderwiel would have discretion over how it was applied.
Although the protest was peaceful, Rutikanga said the purpose of the curfew was to give the police a mechanism to disperse people if any came back.
Most of the businesses along Washington Street normally close before 8 p.m. anyway, though some that remained open said they weren't notified that they had to close because of the curfew.
Certain businesses, such as bars that don't serve food, have been closed for weeks due to the pandemic
and won't be allowed to reopen until the state government gives the greenlight.
There was a heavier than normal police presence on the streets Wednesday night, with Sonora PD patrol cars making frequent rounds and one staked out along side street near the park.
Some of the businesses on Washington Street appeared as though they had closed long before the curfew, or perhaps all day. Several were also boarded up, including Phonesmart, Heel to Toe, Shiro Ninja, Sonora Fly Co., and Love Couture.
Frank Uzzardo, owner of the Diamondback Grill, said he planned to remain open until 9 p.m. as normal because the city hadn't told him otherwise.
Uzzardo said he was already out of business for six weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not even doing take out,losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue as a result.
“I think it's going to be bad for business,” he said of the curfew. “Our business has been really good since we reopened.”
Jim Pranes, owner of Intake Grill, likewise said he hadn't heard about the curfew from the city and wasn't planning on closing early Wednesday night.
Pranes said he asked a couple of Sonora police officers and Sheriff's deputies and was told there wasn't a curfew.
“We're just going to be hanging out and make sure nothing stupid happens after dark,” he said. “It was a peaceful event today, so there's no reason to impose a curfew.”
Sergio Jimenez, owner of Sonora Taqueria, also was planning to stay open until his normal closing time at 9 p.m. and hadn't heard about the curfew because they had been so busy all day.
Jimenez said they served a lot of people who don't live in town on Wednesday, but all of them were nice.
Thomas Silva, owner of Sonora Brewing Co., said he also had not been told by the city that he had to shut down any earlier than his normal closing time at 9 p.m.
Silva said he was nervous about the protest because of the violence and destruction he's seen in other cities over the past week, but he felt like the whole event went well.
“I was pretty scared, but at the end of the day we didn't see that big influx of out-of-towners,” he said. “What I got out of today was a cause for unity. It was beautiful.”