Sacramento leaders plead for restaurants, museums and gyms to be kept open in purple tier

Sacramento restaurants won’t survive a winter of outdoor-only dining.

That was the main message of an open letter from the city core’s three main advocacy organizations — Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Midtown Association and R Street Partnership — and sent this week to Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency.

Co-authored by respective leaders Michael Ault (Downtown), Emily Baime Michaels (Midtown) and Michelle Smira (R Street), the letter requests state approval for restaurants, museums and gyms to continue operating under red tier protocols with limited indoor service.

Sacramento County was demoted to the state’s purple tier this week amid rising COVID-19 case numbers, preventing restaurants from offering indoor dining as of noon Friday after six weeks of service at 25% capacity. Indoors museums, gyms, houses of worship, some schools and a handful of other sectors were ordered to close as well. Click here for a full list of closures and cutbacks.

“As we creep into the winter months, it will be impossible for restaurants to survive purely on outdoor seating as the weather changes,” the letter read. “Using the health and safety standards put in place by state, local and industry leaders, we ask that restaurants, museums and fitness industries be afforded the opportunity to operate at a minimal indoor capacity in the purple tier.”

The letter argues that family gatherings, nursing home outbreaks and Halloween parties are largely to blame for Sacramento County’s rising COVID-19 caseload, which reached a new high Thursday with 496 positive tests. Nearly 30,000 people countywide have tested positive for the virus throughout the pandemic, including 517 who have died.

Most of the letter focuses on restaurants, which generate nearly $200 million in retail sales annually per square mile in the three districts. Approximately 35% of Sacramento restaurants are downtown, midtown or along the R Street Corridor.

“Our restaurants are the backbone of our community and contribute to the vibrancy of our city,” the letter read. “They have also been one of the most severely impacted industries by the shut downs of the last nine months.”