L.A. County set for major reopening as it hits yellow tier
L.A. Unified catches up to other agencies and reopens school playgrounds, but with strict guidelines intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said he has checked in with more than 100 of his group’s members over the past three months.For now, he said, it doesn’t appear that people are “quite ready yet mentally to come back to the office full force.” After more than a year of rollercoaster lockdowns, however, the move to the yellow tier made little difference to Shella Garcia, who has owned the children’s clothing shop Sweet Threads in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore for four years.A few months ago, Garcia was only allowing three customers in the store at a time, keeping others out with a rope strung across the front door. Then she began permitting up to six.
Since the recent reopenings, the Simmzy’s restaurant location in Belmont Shore has experienced its highest sales ever — even since before the pandemic, according to manager Rachel Gerdeman.“People just want to get out of the house. They want to get out, they want to eat, they want to be around other people,” she said. “It’s awesome.”“The more and more people we can sit in the restaurant, the more people we can serve,” Gerdeman said.