Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department announced plans for beach restrictions to occur over the Labor Day holiday weekend throughout Santa Barbara County beaches. All beaches will be temporarily closed for stationary activities. Only immediate access to and from the ocean for water sports or beach access for active physical activity will be permitted. Health Officer, Dr. Henning Ansorg, has issued a Health officer Order to outline the specific parameters of the restrictions. This Order is effective beginning on Friday, September 4, 2020 at 12:01 a.m. and continuing until Monday, September 7, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.
Disease transmission rates has been consistently improving in the last few weeks yet this metric still remains above the threshold outlined by the California Department of Public Health for being removed from the County Monitoring List.
The following restrictions apply for the duration of the Health Officer Order:
- Sitting, lying, standing, sunbathing, sight-seeing, picnicking, and all other non-exercise, passive, or sedentary activities on beach parkways are prohibited.
- Items for sitting or lying on the beach are prohibited for use of possession on beaches, such as umbrellas, shade structures, tents, barbeque grills, sand or beach toys, coolers and beach chairs.
Full details regarding these restrictions can be found in the Health Officer Order.
“Reduced disease transmission is critical in the fight against COVID-19. We anticipate a high volume of visitors at our beaches during the Labor Day weekend, which will impede the practice of safe and necessary social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County,” said Dr. Henning Ansorg. “Our community has remained diligent in their efforts and now is the time to protect all the positive outcomes we have accomplished.”
For more information about the COVID-19 response locally, visit www.publichealthsbc.org.
….and according to the GUSD board meeting happening right now, so will at least the Goleta elementary schools at least until December, likely all the way to June. We’re screwed.
PATHETIC example of poor leadership by our local government. Closing down our beaches is not a reasonable solution to the problem. ENFORCEMENT is the only solution that works.. They are taking away our access to our beaches that we pay taxes to support. But at the same time, we pay a lot of money to employ the police & sheriffs of this county BUT they refuse to enforce the rules. Instead of patrolling the beaches while educating and breaking up large groups, they block our access and force us to congregate elsewhere. What is so wrong with them actually enforcing the rules and opening up access to OUR Beaches? Unbelievably ignorant position on their part.
But protests are still okay, right?
Exactly YETI. The SB County recently refused to enforce the rules and now they’re just shutting it all down. “Nah, we’re not going to actually write tickets for spreading a virus, but we’ll just close the whole beach down and then write tickets for violating a beach closure.” It’s unreal how poorly they’re handling this.
Yes. But only for state approved causes.
nobody gonna want to stay at all the fancy waterfront hotels if they cant go to da beeeach
And those two north county yokels don’t care about anything but profit, anyway.
Just as well. Rather not have as many people from infected LA crowding our city.
The protest are happening all over again right now but make sure you stay off the beach ok because surely that’s where everyone keeps getting covid.
I don’t think the beach closure impacts freedom of speech…
Exactly!
They don’t care about the beach, they care about the bars and restaurants. Take a jaunt along Cabrillo and see the crowds mingling. It must be working out for most of them.
Cops don’t like enforcing social behavior, especially since most of them are conservative-leaning and disagree with the mandates. They didn’t sign up to be the mask police- they want to catch robbers and thugs. I can see their point.
I find this increasingly hard to stomach! The number one reason has to be the invasion from LA, very true. We want to defund police because people are “standing” after leaving the ocean–or moving?
When will this end? This seems about getting revenue–fines? Over 95% recover from COVID treatment now–and the MOST vulnerable are in nursing homes not running in and out of the Ocean, unable to sit, enjoy, play in safe ways. Young people as well have been social distancing with groups. This is now overcontrol at the worst levels. Thank God for North Co. Sups stopping insanity and more control. If you want 100% public health— incarcerate us at home? This actually is more dangerous for seniors and kids. Love the idea of a floating pod. Let’s do it. Will the common cold be treated like this cold virus now that there is all this power. We simply need badges that say –infected or disinfected. My grandkids hate school now too. Great. A bunch of dolts is what an authoritarian bunch of oligarchs with great pensions need. Note: This is not science.
Then add Sharks.
Let’s see, the last time I went to one of our beaches for a holiday was……..15 years ago? Maybe. Who’d want to go into that mess anyway with so many people jamming in, having to walk miles to get a parking spot and schlepping your food. If you want sun, go sit in your backyard. If you want food, make a sandwich.
Sounds like a great idea to me. If the locals are so stubborn as to STILL not wear a mask, oh well. And if the LA day trippers want to come and spread their germs, to hell with them, close it up!
Thank goodness! We don’t need those people from LA or any other hotspots staying in Santa Barbara!
Here here! Let them stay home!
How do you confirm someone is “spreading the virus”? Hypothetically – the equivalent of a thought crime; or using only facts and evidence. considering the paucity of numbers of “spreaders” out and about in this county. Due process turned upside down, everyone is now guilty of being a “secret spreader”; until proven innocent. No wonder this “covid” hyper-hysteria reaction at any price has been so unsettling.
Let’s protest the beach closures. Problem solved.
AGREED! Keep them out.
Protests are important. Wear a mask. Be peaceful, but DO protest! There’s a whole LOT wrong in our country today. We need to get the grifter OUT of the White House.
Here’s an interesting snip from the Associated Press today: “Virus or no virus, European authorities are determined to put children back into classrooms, to narrow the learning gaps between haves and have-nots that deepened during lockdowns — and to get their parents back to work.”
420722 – How about you go protest the beach closures? Tell you what, you do that and I’ll join you in protesting the school closures once our numbers are down, we’re off the watch list and our schools are still closed. That is something I can stand with you on. The beaches? Makes sense. Loads of dumb tourists come up/down to SB to party and act like they’re in someone else’s town. We can do without all that. But schools, nope, not going to be OK with them being closed even when we have low numbers.
Thank you for your willingness to allow my in-laws to die because they happen to be elderly. They are track to live another 20 years, like their parents. But I guess they are over 70, so screw em?
Los Angeles, while still a hotspot, has seen continued decreases in cases of COVID. Their downward trend is even steeper than ours, though admittedly they are at a higher level.
Wondering. Is the US a first world in your mind? I know the terminology eludes us because there is suggestion that we’ve got third world countries etc. So I guess overall the west has it’s first world entitlements. But couldn’t you also very easily suggest the US has become a banana republic? And round and round she goes. It never stops and nobody knows… ouroboros style. So what should we do then? Should we live in a first world ideal but suggest we’re not entitled to it? Relinquish our opinion about exaggerated first world issues? Or should we admit it is really first world, but because of so much plight on the earth, well then beach sitting just isn’t a priority? I guess we need to put down the hammer then on all the products designed around beach sitting. Start with the retailer, Big 5 perhaps, and put them out of business for selling all that plastic beach-sitting-junk. Then all the sellers and manufacturers up stream and, well, you get the point. The good news is there will be less junk and trash and plastic in the oceans. Yea Turtles! Have I made my point yet that this just goes around and around and we can do this all day? Which reminds me. I recently switched to Maxwell House over some first-world priced yet third-world exotic coffee beans I was consuming. It turns out, I may have been had on the over priced Arabica as Maxwell is some pretty tasty stuff. As you can tell, it’s effective for the caffeine chemical high as well the ability to foster run on thoughts and sentences. Now, you might think Maxwell is just some third-world corporate coffee, but, as it turns out, that’s just a first world thought. Because you’ll never believe who else liked this coffee. According to the writer Warren Zanes, Tom Petty was a coffee fanatic! And because I love Tom Petty I enjoy the fact that he really appreciated drinking a tasty bean. And what exotic brand did Tommy use? Maxwell House! So in his the honor of TP, I’ll just sit here in my Maxwell House, caffeine-induced intoxication while enjoying my first world liberties of inhaling Wildflowers as I ponder how It’s Good to Be King.
I wonder a bit what the overlap in “OPEN OUR SCHOOLS” is with the friends I see having big parties on the beach or at their homes. No masks, no distancing, multiple families with kids just having a grand old time. At first, I thought “they have a pod”. Well, when it gets to be 6+ families, that’s not really a pod anymore.
Basically you are seeing the effects of our ever decreasing attention span. Biologically, we are not wired to respond to a 6 month long emergency. The fight or flight response we had in March is long gone, and unless you see a bunch of people dying, most people are going to start living their lives again. Hopefully the people that are most at risk can force themselves to keep isolating, because the rest of us aren’t really helping them out at this point.
Well…that’s the logical endgame here. This virus is here to stay…
You swallowed that lie without even chewing, or the mental equivalent – thinking.