Edhat Staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) has reversed course and announced the beaches will close through the July 4th weekend.
Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg issued a health officer order requiring all beaches to be closed to the public during the July 4th weekend. This order is effective from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 3, 2020 and continuing until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 5, 2020.
PHD stated this order is being issued in response to Santa Barbra County not meeting the threshold criteria for Elevated Disease Transmission, Increasing Hospitalization, and Limited Hospital Capacity for the past 16 days as noted in the County Monitoring Metrics. However, just days earlier when the county was still not meeting the threshold criteria, PHD announced beaches will remain open. There was pushback from numerous residents and suggestions by Governor Gavin Newsom for local officials to close beaches.
“The temporary closure of all beaches is necessary due to the anticipated high volume of people at our beaches during the July 4th weekend, which will impede the practice of safe and necessary social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Santa Barba County,” said Dr. Henning Ansorg. “The landscape for this upcoming weekend has changed in the past few days as more and more counties have decided to close their beaches. This raised significant concern for the impacts to our local community.”
During Thursday’s press conference, PHD Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso stated they were hopeful the beaches could remain open over the holiday weekend, however, an increase in local cases, being on the state’s monitoring list, and the closure of other southern California beaches led to the reversal of their decision.
The threat of thousands of people from out of the area funneling to Santa Barbara County caused great concern and the decision to pivot was in the community’s best interest, Dr. Do-Reynoso confirmed.
Public beaches are closed with the exception that the ocean is open for water sports (e.g. surfing, swimming, paddle-boarding, kayaking, boating) and the beaches may be used for running, walking, cycling, or other forms of active physical activity. Passive activities like sunbathing, sitting, and picnicking are prohibited, as are umbrellas, tents, shade structures, beach chairs, coolers, and barbecues.
Dr. Do-Reynoso also confirmed PHD has been working with local law enforcement and Parks and Recreation to assist with enforcing this closure.
The full health officer order can be found here.
More information about the COVID-19 response locally, visit www.publichealthsbc.org or call the County Call Center at 1(833) 688 – 5551.
By edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) announced the beaches will remain open through the July 4th weekend.
“Beachgoers from separate households must maintain at least six feet of physical distance from one another and wash or sanitize their hands thoroughly and often. Strict social distancing will be enforced,” according to PHD.
This announcement comes one day after Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg ordered all breweries and bars who do not serve a sit-down meal to close. Governor Newsom made the recommendation as Santa Barbara County failed to meet the state’s attestation requirements.
Ventura and Los Angeles Counties have reportedly closed their beaches for the holiday weekend to prevent crowding that results in the spread of COVID-19. Many locals fear with Santa Barbara beaches open, people from out of town will travel to the area to enjoy the beach for the long weekend.
On Monday Santa Barbara County reported its 29th COVID-19 related death and 184 new cases from Saturday through Monday. Of the total 2,896 cases, 604 are still active.
Additionally, PHD stated there will not be a COVID-19 daily case report for Tuesday as they are transitioning data platforms. The next update will be provided on Wednesday, July 1.
When money is more important than lives.
Seriously pissed and annoyed at our SB County “leadership.” Thanks for nothing, A-holes.
Holla for the Dolla!
Nothing good comes of this except overtime for those who will face the drunken/stoned/belligerent ire of beach tourists. It will be even more of a PR disaster after sundown when the fireworks come out.
Terrible decision. Thanks Santa Barbara. LA closed, Ventura closed- welcome to our nightmare.
Nooooooo! We’re doomed. Tourist money over our health. Get rid of them all, start at the top.
Terrible decision. This is going to go very, very badly. Disappointed in leadership. Watch for a Covid surge in 2 weeks.
Email the Mayor. Make the beaches only open to residents. There is still time!
Better get your beach parking spot by 8am.
Did you people not see this coming? They released the tax results and are down 80% compared to last May. Of course they will try to bring people here to get money. The city does not want to cut their salary and be like everyone else. And more people getting CoronaVirus will get more in the hospital and more tax dollars on that.
Good.
Dollars over health. As simple as that
Like it or not, @8:45pm is the truth. The city/county are willing to make up for lost revenues at any cost. Remember in November.
No kidding. Also: How would Santa Barbara police the beaches anyway? Not enough man/woman power on Earth is going to keep people from swarming down there and lighting off their own fireworks. Probably be building fires in the sand, too because, well . . . they’re people who just don’t care about anything but themselves . . .if they even care about anything at all.
VOTE THEM OUT in November! This is awful that they put their tax revenues over health. I also wonder, how many want to go to the beach themselves.
JUN 30, 2020 07:32 PM Don’t forget it will also employ quite a few people who will be needed to clean up all the trash: “lost” blankets/beach towels, abandoned coolers, beer cans, wine bottles, broken glass, etc.
@Free Speech Not & SeaBird… going out to the beach or anywhere public for that matter is also a choice.
There are ways to protect ourselves, you know.
As far as crowded beaches go- how about practicing social distancing and wearing a mask. No one said you can’t tell those around you to park their beach chairs at least 6 feet away. No one said you can’t wear a mask. Stand firm. Stop being such victims in this whole ordeal. There are ways to stay safe. Stop adding more negativity to an already difficult time. Nothing makes everything worse than a bad attitude.
Geez!
Then move, leave, give us back our Santa Barbara where we literally did what want (nothing illegal pure fun) and nobody cared. Everyone knew each other, had fun together and worked together not against each other. Bye. Good move Santa Barbara.
Although, if you’ve been reading the latest statistics, it’s being reported re: the 1,000s of demonstrations countrywide———the “clusters” of predicted infections never materialized. It appears that dine-in restaurants are more lethal than outdoor gatherings. No-one is more surprised than I. Nevertheless. that said, count me as one who thinks The City/County made the wrong decision on this particular occasion. People will be infected. Beaches should remain closed.
Even Communist China and the Socialist countries of Europe are re-opening. T
Would have to have a special meeting to do this. Unlikely to happen now.
Ya’ll be Fear Mongering at 11. Fearful of uncertainty. Lack of understanding. Unable to realize how buried you are in emotions and devoid of logic. Unwilling to take chances while anchored in fear. The crazy part is, you’re selling your fear off on the action of others. If not, you’d just stay home, stay clear, wear a mask and be done. But no, you think the world needs you for advice because it can’t function without you. You’re simultaneously too afraid that the Fear Of Missing Out is just to great. So if you can’t have it? Then NOBODY can! Sadly, you bury these lies in some broken theory of altruism, courage and martyrdom. As if you’re doing it because others can’t do it for themselves. Got news for ya buddy. You’re not the enlighten one. Nobody asked. It is certain your lens is so self centered you can’t even see the wall of pain coming your way. Because if we don’t find some sense of normalcy soon, if cities and businesses don’t begin to function, then you’ve not yet see the hurt put on civilization. It’s coming your way and it’s worse than you’ll ever imagine. So I guess sure, if you’ve thought it out and feel ready to live in chaos while living without? Then sure. Keep chanting your irrational terms on how people and society and others should live their life.
This seems unlikely to be true to me given the infectious nature of this disease. Are you trying to argue that the disease has been present for a year and 1% of the infected people have been dying for that time? Do you have any death certificate data to support this? Everything I’ve read says death certificate numbers didn’t start going up until Dec/Jan.
1:11 Possibly the most low information post ever seen on this website.
@ 1:11pm – that was dramatic! False dilemma fallacy, try again enlightened one.
Nice word salad.
Haskellsbrodie
So, like, does that massive block of words qualify as advice? Cos, if so, re-read it.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva has announced that the LA police will NOT be enforcing the ban on beaches in LA because he was not consulted in advance. (Besides, it’s obviously unenforceable.) It’s all over the media, so I think your worries about an invasion of people from LA is overblown. There was an excellent Op-ed piece in the New York Times a couple of days about the ways rich, white folks have historically used health scares as an excuse to prevent working-class folks and people of color from having access to public beaches and swimming pools. An important lesson for today.
Haskell’s beach has two “L’s” – just a head’s up, one local to another 😉
The missing L represents a Loc who was lost Loving the place.
As you’ve always said, when clueless call Siri.
I know. Not all of us are iceberg only fans.
It is really every person for themselves. Gavin just announced a lock-down for 19 counties for at least three weeks. I guess SB is not one of them? Regardless, all the LA infected (highest rate) are going to be coming up to our beaches this weekend. That will be great for SB!! What are our city officials thinking?
If the surrounding counties have shut down their beaches, notably LA, how in the world does it make sense to keep our beaches open?
Close beaches? Same way Ventura and L.A. do. Limit to locals? Photo IDs and hand stamps like outdoor concerts. Adding my 2 cents: The 4th always draws rowdies, particularly young, male ones feeling their oats and “advertising” babes drinking more than they’re used to. Good time to give it a pass if that isn’t your scene.
I wrote to the mayor (ha) and the city councilmembers. Oscar Gutierrez was as upset as we are that the vote to close beaches this weekend did not pass. However, Mike Jordan was smug, and took the “if you don’t feel comfortable, don’t go to the beach” viewpoint. How myopic and downright embarrassing for him AND the mayor. How is it that people do not realize that this is about more than the beach? Literally inviting Los Angelenos to flock our city – when their own home county had the good sense to shut theirs down – is ludicrous. You think these people won’t go to the Funk Zone tasting rooms, since the bars are closed? You think they won’t go to restaurants, convenience shops, and grocery stores for supplies? Do you honestly believe that they will go to the beach and leave without interacting with our community? WRONG. LA has the highest current infection rate in the country, and the beach goers will be blissfully spreading it around all of SB County. Ventura even had the foresight to close their beaches to make it less attractive for LA. **Also, why on earth are wineries and tasting rooms allowed to be open while bars are closed? The only difference is they serve cheese and crackers. I am truly appalled at the greedy, crappy leadership of this county,
@Mesarez, it’s not just about beaches. Thousands of people from LA (with the highest infection rate in the nation, currently) will be visiting our restaurants, convenience shops, grocery stores, etc. while they are here for our beaches. Don’t be naive.
APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE. Excellent decision. I will be taking my daughter to the beach. She’s fed up being locked indoors, going on four months now, with appalling virtual classroom instruction via Zoom. We’ll be getting vigorous exercise swimming in the ocean, jumping over waves, boosting our immune systems with the sunrays. It’s extremely unlikely that we will be infected in an outdoor context as long as we’re physically distancing and staying in small groups. If some of you feel better sitting indoors, binge-watching Netflix, with the A/C going full blast (while the postal service is delivering your mail, your Mexican gardener is cutting your lawn, Marborg is hauling your trash, and Uber-eats is delivering your gourmet meals), be my guest. But, please, spare me your self-righteous attitudes!
I’m old. Can anyone translate text meaning of FSN and the Courtney.
“Santa Barbara is NOT a mask-free zone. If you want to visit here, you *must* wear a mask. If you don’t want to wear a mask, you are not a welcome visitor to our city, please turn around and go home.” Are they going to put up signs like this on the 101 at Rincon? Maybe they should!
They did have a sign at the beginning of Cabrillo Blvd, near the bird refuge and East Beach, reminding visitors to maintain physical distance and wear a mask. Maybe it’s still there? In my experience, locals and visitors alike are being very conscientious about the various health mandates. Most of the spread is due to people sitting indoors, in prisons, retirement centers, ane group homes. I’m glad that my family and the families of our essential workers, those of us who don’t have palatial residences with swimming pools and various other amenities, can enjoy being outdoors, on the beach, this holiday weekend.
Collectively the City Council made the right decision to leave beaches open.
It was encouraging to see the data and science honored using reason instead of making some “emotional” decision.
Thank you Mayor Murillo for protecting our Freedom of choice for all and not being manipulated by emotion. Clearly you have done your research, are respecting our Public Health experts and standing side by side with the County on this.
The Health Department that is very conservative with safety, has not recommended closure nor has the County. More people are being tested, so more are showing positive, this is expected. The key numbers are reflected in the ICU numbers which have remained flat, even with numbers of new cases up.
If you don’t feel safe, you have a choice not to go out. When we go out anywhere, not just on the 4th of July holiday weekend, on any day it is important to remember to social distance , wear a mask
( not with one way valve ) and wash/sanitize your hands often.
We are going to be in this for a long time at least until there is a vaccine. Stay frustrated or adjust , its your choice.
The Public Health Department is tracing the Covid exposures to people who test positive to someone, friend or family members they know and spend time with them often, not from wide open space and contact less than 10 minutes with the public.
Maybe the beach is relatively safe, but in getting there you are going to be around people in the bathrooms, restaurants, gas stations, candy stores, bike rental places, hotel lobbies, and crowded sidewalks. If you don’t act sensibly this weekend, please ride out any ensuing illness in your home and don’t bother the people at our hospitals. They have enough to do helping the people that tried to follow the rules.
What does the rant of your gardener have to do with your rant? Referring to race when it has nothing to do with the story is so 1950s. 2020 now, try to get with it.
Santa Barbara City Council vote on closing the beaches for the 4th of July weekend
Some good points made on both sides
YES on closing: Oscar Gutierrez, Alejandra Gutierrez, Kristen Sneddon,
NO on closing: Eric Friedman, Mike Jordan Mayor Cathy Murillo,
Absent: Meagan Harmon,
Short-sighted and outright irresponsible. The beaches here will be even more packed than normal because of LA and Ventura closures. What are they thinking?
So how many people thought the scene in Jaws when the merchants and politicians of Amity resisted closing its beaches was absurd? Who would risk death just to profit from the tourists? Well, here we are doing the same ignorant thing in Santa Barbara.
First off, the % of positive results are going up, that’s a problem. Second, the desire to close beaches comes primarily from wanting to keep the people from Los Angeles (still a hotbed!) from coming here. Should we worry about the beaches? Maybe not too much…but they stay here, they eat here, they drink here…that’s the issue. (Also, testing until the last week has been flat, not increasing. Everyone says it’s been increasing. Numbers show something different.)
2017 – 53 SB Deaths due to Influenza and pneumonia (SBPHD)
– Most at risk population; seniors and young children as their immune systems are more likely to be compromised.
What has SB implemented since those 53 deaths in 2017? I can’t hear you, what has the PHD done to prevent those future influenza and pneumonia deaths?
To date 29 COVID deaths in SB. (6 in S County)
You can view this as “hey we’re doing better than the flu, or hey why hasn’t anyone in the country done something about flus and viruses that have been around for centuries.
You’re right every death is a shame, but these issues, diseases, viruses, germs, bacteria have been around for a long time. What has worked, good hygiene and stay home if you’re sick or worried about getting sick.
Why is it that a couple weeks ago all of a sudden the mask is the answer? Because science can’t fix it. Yes a mask limits transmission and per CNBC 89% of people wear a mask. Stop fighting over the mask, people are wearing them. If someone is not, ask them politely, why. Or stay away from them. Businesses in other counties offer masks to people entering. Do SB businesses? Not in my experience.
Do SB businesses still sterilize in between customers? Not in my experience.
Reality, if you’re a high risk person you should have been wearing a medical mask long before COVID, even though the doctors never did, and don’t go near the tourists or other people. I know we don’t go hang around them. We wait until they all leave.
SB COUNTY population 445,000
# of Positive test results 2,896 (0.65% of SB)
Actively infected 275 (0.06% of SB)
Hispanic 975
White/non Hispanic 170
99.94% of SB is NOT active with COVID! Yeah!
We need to be asking why is N County & Hispanic more prone to this.
https://publichealthsbc.org/status-reports/
Good luck physically distancing from the hordes from Los Angeles.
I HEARD A COUPLE OF NURSES GOSSIPING, THEY WERE SAYING THE TESTING ISNT QUITE ACCURATE. almost all test came bach positive. soo, they sent 3 blank tests in and they came back positive. is this stuff political?? im flabbergasted!!
this is la. smog,traffic and soundwalls
People don’t seem to understand STILL how this virus spreads. There is nothing wrong per se going to the beach IF you are distancing, etc. Problem is these potentially infected ppl from rising hotspots also frequent restaurants, stores, etc. and can/will spread it in the community then it spreads exponentially from there. As far as protests when tracers don’t ask if someone was at a protest and/or someone doesn’t admit to it [which most won’t] then we don’t get accurate stats on those – so that’s why it’s not being reported accurately/truthfully how much they spread it too. Close the beaches and keep SB safe.
We’re going to need a bigger hospital.
WRONG protests spread it they just aren’t asking them and/or ppl are not admitting to being at protests so no accurate data there. PPL will admit going to a restaurant and/or will be asked about it but not protests so you can’t trust the reporting right now.
SBLETSGETALONG – Your comment read like a dog whistle. There are numerous articles on why the hispanic population may be getting COVID at a higher rate – across the country, not just here.
SBLETSGETALONG
Per the CDC: 2017-2018 Flu: 45 million illnesses / 61,099 deaths — CDC: Covid-19: 2,581,229 illnesses / 126,739 deaths—“What has SB implemented since those 53 deaths in 2017?” Flu vaccines, Pneumonia vaccines —“Why is it that a couple weeks ago all of a sudden the mask is the answer?” New disease, learning as time passes — “”Because science can’t fix it” LOL – yeah, just like polio, smallpox, are running rampant these days, just like millions of cases of flu are prevented each year by vaccine.
Great! Now you know who to blame when we have a surge: “Mayor Cathy Murillo, and council members Eric Friedman and Mike Jordon voted to keep the beaches open.” _________—- https://keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/2020/06/30/tie-vote-means-santa-barbara-city-beaches-will-stay-open-over-4th-of-july-holiday-weekend/?fbclid=IwAR2hf-qGyoKYviKn1eRa5uVoDSglX4uNZavVbkfMiKeIeNtth5OAF1w3t4o
Great points. Lets also remember that the city council voted to approve a 20 year long verizon wireless license agreement to allow small cells to be installed and the city get paid nearly 250/light pole/month(is that part correct?)…thats going to last much longer then this “virus”…and for what…not for the health and safety according to Eric Friedman…go watch that city council meeting, till the very end and see THAT calamity for itself…how does this relate to COVID-19? Contact tracing, more granular pinpointing of your smartphones(with contact tracing modules embedded in the operating system updates!!!), activation of symptoms that are on the list of COVID-19 symptoms…millimeter waves are no joke. This is all part of a BIGGER plan…don’t worry about the beaches…but if you do feel confident in going out, leave your phone at home, and just skip Sat and Sunday, go Fri or Monday…duh! We live here, why do we NEED to go on the weekend anyways? No one wants to be around LA-ians anytime of any year, anyways. Use your own heads and think for yourselvs!!!
Money talks and the tourism industry and their puppets have decided to offer up our beaches to the L.A. crowds, virus be damned. Nothing new here, just more obvious and less justified then ever.
locals stay away from our beaches then will be overrun with infected LA peps
BAD427 – lmao, most tests come back negative. “Is this stuff political? “ not in the way you are implying. Next insane question people?
Vaccines are not a cure, they are after the fact to help prevent that strain of virus from popping up again. Science does not have a cure. They offer “lock yourself at home, close your businesses and wear a piece of cloth”
Confidence inspiring. after decades of studying viruses.
Reality, herd immunity. Allow those that are not high risk to get infected so they can spread a weakened version of this strain. It’s worked for centuries.
As the the mask being a cure, what type of mask? Scientists still are not sure exactly what type works. The vented masks allow droplets to escape not protecting others. People don’t clean their masks regularly allowing build up of germs that get through the cloth.
People touch stuff then touch their mask then put their mask back on touching their face.
It’s all a guessing game.
What works, good hygiene, stay home when sick and if you’re concerned, stay home.
I will exercise my right as an American to not go to the beach this weekend. While not discriminating others for visiting and having fun.
I hate to say it but watch these case skyrocket come mid July for the city of Santa Barbara because of people traveling. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF, look into the Spanish Flu……cases and deaths will go up!
Researchers detected the presence of the virus that caused the disease in samples of waste water in Barcelona, collected in March 12, 2019. These results, sent to a high impact journal and published in the archive medRxiv, suggest the infection was present before knowing about any case of COVID-19 in any part of the world.
https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/sars-cov-2-traces-detected-in-barcelona-waste-water-from-march-2019-336688
Lets not be naive and make it as simple as not going out during the weekend…we live here, why wait till the weekend? Go early, go late…there wont be anything to see or do anyways since the whole celebration is cancelled….did anyone think or say that, besides me, already…? And if you all really think wearing crappy none sealing masks work anyways, you just go ahead and get that vaccine that modifies your DNA and see how you feel afterwards…always look deeper than the surface
truly a stupid or short-sighted decision. props to the 3 council members who said close the beach.
Or at least let’s restrict it to those who are walking or running, not sitting down in large groups.
it’s not unreasonable to expect hordes flocking here, if the weather is good, with Ventura and LA beaches closed. They’ll not wear masks, will interact with residents on the beach, at 7-11, and in line at restaurants. Do we want to learn what a mistake this wa 4-5 weeks from now or would it be better to be cautious and protect our citizens? rhetorical question.
Myrtle Beach opened for economic reasons and Memorial Day turned it into an East Coast hot spot. The whole County is surging, and visitors returning home are being asked if they’ve been to Myrtle Beach as an obvious risk factor. There’s an article in the Washington Post today that draws some fairly obvious parallels to us. From that WaPo article, a description of the holiday attitude and lack of caution – “People forget about social distancing, people remove their masks, people throw caution to the wind, and they’re out there to enjoy summer on the beach . . . and immediately after our numbers started to rise,” said Barbara Jo Blain-Bellamy, the mayor of the nearby city of Conway. She contracted the coronavirus about four weeks ago.“
Ventura County just closed their beaches so ours are really gonna be packed.
SBLETSGETALONG – while I agree with parts of what you are saying, you are moving the goal post in your response. For example, I did not say vaccines were a cure. Your original comment asked ” what has the PHD done to prevent those future influenza and pneumonia deaths? ” and my response was to show that things are done to try to prevent or limit future cases of flu. You compared 56 deaths from flu/pneumonia in 2017 to Covid-19 which I interpreted to be an attempt to downplay Covid-19’s mortality risk compared to flu. Looking at a macro view, its obvious that Covid-19 is deadlier than the flu of 2017. How much more? We don’t know for certain, but its already killed twice as many people with all the measures in place that were not in place for the flu. So for the sake of common ground, I wholeheartedly agree that good hygiene and staying home when sick are very important.
Uhh, people are NOT wearing them! I took a drive out on Stearn’s Wharf last Sunday just to get out of the house. It was literally crawling with tourists and the vast majority were NOT wearing their masks, or they had them down hanging around their necks. A lot of good that does… we had our windows rolled up and never got out of the car. If it was that crowded and that bad last Sunday, just THINK of how it will be on July 4th. NOPE. This is a bad move. They should have closed the beaches. Poor leadership in our city!!
LOOSE CANNON, in my experience, the locals are being very good about wearing masks, it’s the tourists I’m worried about, as I saw on our Sunday drive on Stearn’s Wharf, it was a hot mess. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Are people really that stupid? Yes… yes, they are. That is why closing the beaches in SB down would have been the right thing to do, but here we are. Buckle up.
I just saw on Twitter that supposedly the Governor is going to order all LA restaurants closed for the next three weeks. If that is true and he does it, before this weekend, it will be EVEN WORSE here! Close the damn beaches! If you closed the bars then do that too!
BIGUGLY – that was my idea months ago when they cancelled the fireworks. Why not close stuff down and enforce it like in IV? No, they cancel the fireworks but open and actively PROMOTE our beaches to tens of thousands of out of town “visitors.” This is beyond stupid!
LUVADUCK – so young males are to blame, huh? Wow, you always find a way to blame young men for every issues. Gross.
DTOM – whats wrong with more Verizon cells and money going to the city for it? Sounds like a win-win all around. Cell service is crap in much of this area.
9,740 new cases reported in California today. Shut the damn beaches. Stay home.
You better believe I’m going to light off a couple tiny fireworks in my yard (with hose handy). This is all so stupid. Cancel fireworks but encourage crowds at our beaches and in our towns? Idiocy.
Gov. Newsom just announced bars in SB County ordered to close completely. Restaurants only indoors closed. Maybe SB City will now change its mind about the beaches?
These industries to be closed include restaurants with dining rooms, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, and cardrooms. These health orders will be enforced by teams made up of some statewide agencies. The teams will include people from ABC, CalOSHA, Dept. of Business Oversight, Dept. of Consumer Affairs & CHP. They’ll work with local health departments and businesses to locate workplaces that aren’t complying with the orders.
7/4’s power in U.S. identity can’t be overstated. Personal and collective meaning and memories are among our most treasured. Even so, as seen in comments here many of us are deeply concerned about public safety and pandemic risks of opening our County & City beaches for the holiday weekend this year. In one of the recent comments “Anonymous” wrote: “Is there any petition or action being taken to tell the City what we think about them opening (and advertising) our beaches this weekend?” Not knowing how/where else to do something I’m going to write up a formal Petition and request Ed to publish it in some way that individuals with unique public or anonymous ID can “sign” for/against beach closure for County/City. If it can be done and enough “sign” we can try to find some way of getting it to the County & City.
Concerns: Crowds, alcohol, fireworks, violence, surge in pandemic cases here & adjoining closed beach counties, and risks to police and anyone else trying to enforce pandemic precautions. That’s just off the top of my head, not having waded thru all the preceding comments. In favor of beach opening are commerce, tradition, hope of calm safe & sane unity, faith in human nature and effective enforcement, and what “freedom” means to each of us.
I’ll sign it.
Wonderful news! Thanks for posting. I’ll go take a look…
Oop. No need for a petition now. Wonder who’s going to be walking the beaches, telling people they can’t lie down on their towels? It’s gonna take a lot of police and sheriffs. Please don’t tell me LE is going to be driving up and down the beaches . . .
SBC PHO closure order text can be downloaded at this link: https://countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/phd/PROGRAMS/Disease_Control/Corona/HOO%202020-13%20Beach%20Closure.pdf
The order says says a violation is a misdemeanor. That means anyone charged for violating the order is entitled to a trial by jury. If anyone is charged with violating the order, which I doubt will happen, pleading not guilty should be sufficient to get the charges dropped. Can you imagine summoning a jury to try someone for “attempted picnicking?”
PHO Order Summary (unofficial): Applies to all SB County public beaches 7/3-5 (may be extended/revised). Violation =
Nice summation. Thanks.
Hopefully the maginally sane among us will accede, motivated by the hassle alone if not the financial factors and avoidance of even a brief accommodation in a cozy jail cell with like-minded others.
Chip’s low information ramblings continue.
Picnicking is a heinous crime, but wasn’t someone arrested for attempted murder for flagrant exposure to COVID-19?
Chip – put on a damn mask and stay away from the beach. Our local militia will be out regulating laws of the beach so you can stay home and peck away on your iphone.
I’m glad, and I’m sad.
Same here. 7/4 is one of my favorite holidays. I’ll miss the fireworks too, but hope the illegal ones don’t burn down our region.
Thank You for closing the beaches.
Somebody didn’t know how to spell Haskell’s.
CHIP you’ll be stuck with a 1,000 fine though. And the courts are open. You’ll sit in jail over the weekend until you can have your videoconferenced bail hearing and there will be a trial.
What a mess…. Hopefully, people that might be coming from the Los Angeles cities will get the word that our beaches will not be open.
420722 mask enfrocement could be by any number of public agencies, it does NOT have to be the police handing out tickets.
Turn back now, L.A. peeps! Northbound L.A. folks had better start walking NOW if they’re planning on driving up and parking their cars on Carpinteria /Santa Barbara/Goleta beaches. All beach parking lots are closed for the holiday weekend in Carpinteria. And, all remaining Carpinteria street parking is maxed out already. Enjoy the walk.
Whelp…. all the concerns about drinking and illegal fireworks on the beach have been solved. Guess they’ll have to find somewhere else to go…. Swell. E. Camino Cielo, Painted Cave Rd and W. Camino Cielo has been nothing but a solid parade of cars, campers, and party-ers since the first closure. We were holding out hope that at least drinking and fireworks would be down there …by the water, and straight roads, and fire departments. Guess not.
City has closed a couple of beach parking lots, pushing the parking back into the neighborhoods. It’s going to be an interesting weekend.
Good. In my opinion, it is a sign of intelligence when someone or some agency will eat their words and change their decision in the face of new evidence. Many people are too prideful to change their mind.
Chip, So instead of attorneys ambulance chasing they will be beach chasing? Begs the question, does a misdemeanor charge yield a free public defender assistance?
I’ve grown weary of the anti mask crowd. It does not matter what data/facts you present to them they come up with something else. There is no persuading them. Sadly, I think at this point the only solution is to just be a “Karen” and call the phone # set up to report businesses not enforcing it. I am going to although I don’t normally do stuff like that. I don’t see any other solution here to combat this.
I love SB, but people here act more entitled than anywhere else I’ve lived (which is saying something).
SO FEW people are wearing masks when walking. SO FEW are social distancing. I am not talking downtown, but at parks, beaches, neighborhoods, etc.
if you leave your house without a mask, you are part of the problem.
No for us it’s not fear mongering. It is data. Analysis. Looking at different angles. Making educated decisions based on the data. We tried going back to an “adjusted” normal. We started memorial day. What happened? Increasing cases, increasing numbers in the ICU and hospital, and only accelerating. If, when we opened, everyone behaved intelligently and wore masks and social distanced (no hanging out for hours in bars, no big family birthday parties), we wouldn’t be here in this situation, being shut down. You can open up, regain *some* amount of normalcy, but you have to play it safe. It sucks. We all know this. I miss hugging people. And I’m NOT a hugger. There are definite issues with some people not having their social interaction. However, a large number of people in this town just don’t care. They want to go out, and they are going out no matter what. SO here we are. When it comes to this shut down and data? I mean, come on. You can still walk/run/swim/surf on the beach. You just cannot linger. This was NOT because everyone is in fear of getting COVID at the beach. This was because having open beaches encourages the tourists from Los Angeles and elsewhere to come here and party, not social distance, not mask, and potentially spread COVID in our restaurants and stores.
Amazing how much better they did flattening the curve and decreasing their cases first.
anonnymiss: If you’re not within 6’ of another person who’s not a member of your close family, there’s no reason to wear a mask. To say “you are part of the problem” if you leave your house without a mask is just wrong and contributes to:the problem by sending false information. I live alone, I walk my dog, I do not go outside wearing a mask. I do wear a mask in line at stores or within stores and I make sure to keep 6’ from others. This is a serious situation and it is important to not throw stones at others who don’t do as you do.
Suggest you educate yourself on the state requirements for face coverings:
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH%20Document%20Library/COVID-19/Guidance-for-Face-Coverings_06-18-2020.pdf
“ The following individuals are exempt from wearing a face covering:
Persons who are engaged in outdoor work or recreation such as swimming, walking, hiking, bicycling, or running, when alone or with household members, and when they are able to maintain a distance of at least six feet from others.“
“i’m glad they closed the beaches” says the person who never goes to the beach…lol