CRA Takes LA County To Court
By: Audrey Wells
Tags: Covid 19 Update, Sacramento, Nocal, Restaurant Business, California

Fortuitous or fated?

CRA Takes LA County To Court

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

When Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor, Janice Hahn, representing LA County’s 4th District, quoted Betty Davis of Sunset Boulevard infamy warned attendees to Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, her attempt to season the meeting with levity may have fallen flat based on public comments during Tuesday’s live forum.

LA County Board members were met with an overwhelming response from constituents and restaurateurs from as far north as Sacramento including calls from Mayors of Redondo Beach and the city of Covina, elected officials from Glendale, Pasadena, Chadsworth, and Laverne—all vociferously opposing the ban of outdoor dining.

When One-Size does not fit All

This recent aggressive move seems justified in the interest of public health and safety, however, it’s a dangerous remedy that risks whisking an alarming number of small, mid-size, and family-owned businesses throughout the food and beverage industry into the danger zone.

This massive economic hit includes interdependent B2Bs throughout the state—a swath of industries slipping into a tragically growing vortex of permanent closures. Their obituaries will speak to being well-run, well-managed, and well-supported-by-the-communities-they-serve hence the existential urgency and impassioned demand for the LA County Board to reconsider restricting outdoor seating.

Investing in and adopting outdoor seating and dining room redesigns to accommodate social distancing have become one of only a handful of short and long-term solutions for such a social and interactive environment and have become a critical key to their very survival.

Adapting to a 25% margin cut in seating capacity may conservatively be offset with outdoor seating and for elected officials throughout California’s mostly sunny, and rich gourmet gulch to consider eliminating an outdoor option during this global pandemic crisis is like pouring Sterno on a dumpster fire.

SFO and SMF Airport-Dining Open for Service: Raising eyebrows, recordings, and more questions than answers

Randy Paragary, industry mentor and Sacramento bar and restaurant owner for over 40 years seemed surprised and concerned by what he observed after traveling by air last week.

In an email sent to Jot Condie, President, and CEO of CRA, Paragary noted restaurants in airports at both Sacramento and San Francisco travel hubs appeared to not only be fully open and operational but “Both had very busy indoor dining rooms.”

This observation recorded by both Paragary and Diane Lally, who happened to be at Sacramento International Airport recently, was not only an eye-opener but triggered unsettling perceptions that their businesses are being targeted, scapegoated, or worse being abjectly treated unfairly.

Paragary positing in his email the hypocrisy is difficult to accept in cases where the government is ‘the landlord’ therefore it’s ‘ok’ to serve indoors. While making clear he’s not advocating for airport restaurant closures, he couldn't help but question the reasoning or equity of allowing people to dine indoors at airports and subsequently boarding planes without social-distancing—yet still demand the same businesses shutter their kitchens in cities and counties throughout the state.

Dining and hospitality cannot live by take-out and curbside alone: CRA To The Rescue

Once Tuesday’s public comments call wrapped, votes were tallied and in spite of thoughtful Board opposition from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the majority voted to continue the ban on outdoor dining for a minimum of three weeks.

As an answer to their decision, the California Restaurant Industry [CRA] promptly filed and sought an order requiring the LA County Department of Public Health to prove they have evidence justifying their ban on outdoor dining.

Repeated efforts by the CRA—since the onset of the pandemic and its public health and safety ramifications—for the state and counties to release their data in full to the public in order to have a clear and accurate picture of “where the spread is occurring” have been ignored.

According to Jot Condie, President, and CEO, California Restaurant Association:

We have seen no evidence yet that restaurants are a systematic source of spread, and we especially take issue with the idea that restaurants’ outdoor operations are to blame for rising Coronavirus cases in LA County.

In spite of Tuesday’s setback, Ms. Condie expects to be back in court next week with this caveat.

If restaurants must take the painful step of laying off employees during Thanksgiving week because of the closure of outdoor dining, the county should, at a minimum, demonstrate that outdoor dining is to blame for the spread of the virus.

While California may be one of the nation’s leaders in the food and beverage industry—the struggle to support, sustain, and salvage a vital and growing industry gainfully employing hundreds of thousands in communities in our state and across the country has never been more urgent.