Despite the spike in coronavirus cases across the state, San Francisco Mayor London Breed is staying the course and feeling confident in the way her city continues to reopen. She isn’t letting the rising numbers in California deter her from allowing businesses to get back to work.
As of Monday, there are 43 people being hospitalized in San Francisco for COVID-19, including five people who were taken in from Imperial County. On a walking tour of North Beach to recognize businesses during Essential Worker Week on Wednesday, Breed said, “I think we’re in a good position to continue, but it’s also a reminder that as we continue to open, we got to wear a mask, we got to socially distance, we got to be responsible so that we can remain open.”
Breed said the stable data proves that San Francisco is in a good place and will continue to reopen as planned. Although, the mayor admits, it’s challenging finding the right balance.
“We want to be responsible, we want to protect public health, but we want to also allow people the freedoms to move around the city,” Breed said.
Dave Karraker, a small business owner of MX3 Fitness and a Castro Merchants representative, said businesses are slowly getting their footing back, but there are many hurdles ahead.
“We are thinking about every single thing we can do to possibly exceed the state’s and Cal/OSHA’s COVID safety procedures and enact on those every single day,” Karraker said.
Starting Thursday morning, that means moving business out to the sidewalk thanks to being approved for a Shared Spaces city permit. Yet capacity is still an issue for other businesses like restaurants, which is why Karraker says we need to support local more than ever.
Karraker said, “We need to get more businesses open. We need to get more people back into these businesses to really rebuild these neighborhoods.”
On Monday, places like hair salons and tattoo parlors can reopen, but not everyone will be able to. The owner of Castro Tattoo says she doesn’t expect to open until mid-July.
