Official calls outdoor dining ‘dangerous’ in new California ban — then goes out to eat

A Los Angeles County supervisor backed a ban on outdoor dining as coronavirus cases soar. Hours later, she went out to eat at her favorite restaurant.

At a contentious Board of Supervisors hearing Nov. 24, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl called outdoor dining “most dangerous” before joining a 3-2 majority for a temporary ban to take effect the next day, KCBS reported.

A Kuehl spokesman confirmed that she later had dinner on the patio at Il Forno, an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, before the ban took effect, KTTV reported.

“Like so many people in Los Angeles, she has a favorite place to eat and is saddened that so many restaurants are suffering from lost business,” the spokesman said, KABC reported. She complied with all county health rules while at the restaurant, her office said.

Kuehl plans to continue supporting Il Forno with take-out orders and encourages other Los Angeles residents to do the same for their favorite restaurants, according to the station.

But her decision to eat out after voting to ban outdoor dining drew criticism.

“As a concerned citizen of Los Angeles I’d like to know what you had for dinner at the Italian restaurant the same night you voted to close all the restaurants?” Dave Rubin, a former NBA player who now hosts a YouTube talk show, wrote on Twitter. “Also, what wine goes well with power hungry mania?”

“She literally said it was dangerous to eat outside, voted to ban it and then did that very thing a few hours later,” read a post from another Twitter user. “You can’t rationalize the optics nor the stupidity of trying to support this.”

At the Board of Supervisors hearing, Kuehl had warned of the dangers of outdoor dining.

“Outdoor dining is probably more dangerous in terms of contagion than any other kind of business,” Kuehl said, KCBS reported.

County officials must treat rising COVID-19 cases as “a serious health emergency,” Kuehl said, noting that servers “are not protected from us,” KTTV reported.

“It’s a bit of magical thinking on everyone’s part to think that at any restaurant anywhere that the server keeps a six-foot distance from the table,’‘ Kuehl said, KNBC reported.

Los Angeles restaurateurs and city officials had pleaded with the board not to re-impose an outdoor dining ban.

“The Board of Supervisors just laid off tens of thousands of people, including many West Hollywood residents, based on junk science and a need to make it look like they’re doing something,” said West Hollywood City Councilman John D’Amico at a news conference following the vote, KNBC reported.

“All of this one month before Christmas,” D’Amico said, according to the station. “To that I say, ‘Bah, humbug.’”

Kuehl won election to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2014 after serving in the California State Senate and Assembly, according to her website. She was the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the California legislature.

More than 63 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 1.4 million deaths as of Dec. 1, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 13 million confirmed cases with more than 268,000 deaths.

Los Angeles County reported 5,150 new cases Monday, with 17 additional deaths, KABC reported. Area hospitals are under strain with 2,185 people hospitalized for COVID-19.

This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 9:46 AM.