04 Dec Restaurants Defy L.A. County COVID Orders
By Tammye McDuff
As many restaurants and businesses are reeling in the aftermath of new shutdown mandates, some have defied the order and expressed their feelings for the small businesses.
One such organization is the La Mirada Chamber of Commerce. At a special meeting of the La Mirada City Council Rich Trujillo, President of the Chamber and Noel James, Executive Director took the dais to express their outrage, while at the same time expressing concern for the businesses in La Mirada.
Last week the City Council unanimously passed Resolution 20-25 in a special meeting, basically stating that the City Council opposed the Los Angeles County Public Health officer order recluding outdoor dining operations.
On Sunday, November 29th the Chamber began a petition to support outdoor dining in the City. A statement released by the Chamber stated, “Hundreds of thousands of trips by local residents have been made – coming and going within the City limits. There is clear evidence that La Mirada, like many of the cities around us, are following the protocols set forth by governmental agencies. Yet our businesses are not allowed to fully open and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health wants to close down outdoor dining – again. It is evident that we all want a solution that minimizes CoVID deaths. In the beginning fear of the unknown shook us, now there are guidelines we support. Therefore, fear must be replaced with reason. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s own data for La Mirada does not reasonably justify the course they wish to place on our businesses. We encourage La Mirada residents to continue to shop and dine in our City in support of this petition.”
In an effort to gain some perspective on the thoughts of restaurant owners, HMG-CN joined Trujillo as he visited restaurants and talked with the owners. With very few exceptions most restaurants will be staying open.
In order to ‘comply’ with the mandate, most restaurants have kept the outdoor dining facilities intact with tables and chairs. Tom’s Tailgate told HMG-CN that all of his orders are ‘to-go’ however if customers wish to dine under the tent, they may do so.
“It is not fair that Pasadena, Long Beach, and Orange County are still open,” said Rodolfo Sanchez of Mexico 1900 Restaurant, “We have had to let all our employees go with the exception of our cooks and dishwashers. We are working just to pay the rent and utilities and we have been in La Mirada since 1972.”
Michael Christoforakis owner of Mikes Classic Burgers says that if it weren’t for their drive-thru window they would be in much worse shape. “It doesn’t make any sense he said, residents can just go a mile or so into Orange County and their restaurants are open.”
Long Beach restaurant owners held a news conference last week blasting the decision, which landed devastating blows to thousands of workers just before the holidays. “We have to look at our employees and tell them that they don’t have a job, again,” said Ciaran Gough, owner of The 908 in East Long Beach. “To say we are crestfallen is an understatement.”
We visited a dozen or so places and only one small restaurant, who did not want to be mentioned, stated that they were going to follow the Health Department’s new mandate. This move has sparked added tension between city leaders and local restaurant owners who say the closures will cause many to go out of business.
Reprinted with permission from Hews Media Group’s December 4th issue of the La Mirada Lamplighter.
Source: La Mirada Lamplighter