By Mayor James T. Butts, Jr., Exclusive to Inglewood Today
Amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations in LA County, the new LA County Safer at Home restrictions that went into effect Monday, November 30, 2020, will have negative impacts on the City of Inglewood’s local businesses and restaurants. The new measures will remain in effect until December 20, 2020, according to the Los Angeles County Public Health Department. As specified in the new Safer at Home Order, various businesses are directed to set reduced occupancy limits. The list includes, essential retail: 35% maximum occupancy; nonessential retail: 20% maximum occupancy; personal care services: 20% maximum occupancy; fitness centers operating outdoors: 50% maximum occupancy, and more. Individuals at these sites are required to wear face coverings and keep at least 6 feet of distancing. However, the single most negative impact to the City of Inglewood targets our local mom and pop restaurants. The new order forces these restaurants to shut down all outdoor dining and restricts them to take out, delivery and drive-thru services only. Many of our local restaurants invested hard earned dollars to provide outdoor dining services and welcomed the holiday season as a potential boost to their businesses and wages for their employees. City leadership worked diligently with local businesses to change ordinances as a lifeline to provide outdoor dining in available parking lots and sidewalks. With no new stimulus dollars on the horizon from the Federal government, many restaurant owners fear they will not be able to survive this latest shutdown and may have to close their doors forever. They also believe these new measures unfairly punish their businesses. In most cases, they have exceeded the current COVID-19 safety protocols and data fails to support outbreaks are coming from outdoor dining ser
