Sacramento County orders mass business closures, Arden Fair mall to close again
Heeding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s sweeping re-closure announcement, Sacramento County health officials immediately announced Monday they are calling on most indoor businesses and activities to halt. Yolo County later announced the closures as well.
Leaders in Yolo and Placer county, however, as well as numerous local businesses, expressed frustration with the new shutdowns, ordered by the governor.
Sacramento, Yolo and Placer are among the 29 counties, making up 80 percent of the state population, that are being compelled by the governor to shut down hundreds of local businesses and activities, including gyms, fitness centers, indoor worship services, offices in non-critical sectors, barbershops, nail salons and indoor shopping malls.
Arden Fair mall began moving to shut down the shopping center, which had reopened on June 8.
“It seems very clear cut that the governor is requiring us at this point to close, and we’re obviously going to do what we need to do to follow not only the governor’s order but to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” mall spokesman Nathan Spradlin said. “My team’s in the process of doing that. It’s a matter of having the proper signage in place and other needs.”
The reversal of previous openings comes as California’s coronavirus infection rate jumped over 8 percent of test takers this weekend for the first time in months, and is a tacit acknowledgment by state and local officials that the reopening of the economy after a March shutdown has prompted more cases and greater spread of the COVID-19 disease.
Many business owners complain, though, that the resurgence of the disease appears to be based more on private family gatherings in homes than infections happening in stores or workplaces.
Sacramento County Health Chief Dr. Peter Beilenson on Monday acknowledged that the spread locally has been happening more in family and friend gatherings, but said there are numerous cases of clusters happening as well connected to recently reopened businesses.
He said, in retrospect, the state and the county likely reopened some businesses more quickly than they should have, but defended those earlier reopenings, saying state and local health officials were also weighing the impact on the economy and on people’s paychecks, as well as mental health.
“There are incredibly competing demands here,” he said. “It’s a huge balancing act. It was reasonable to do some of the openings, but no one has 20-20 foresight.”
Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties, all of which are on the governor’s “monitor list” of struggling counties, already have closed bars and have prohibited indoor dining at restaurants.
Infection, hospitalization numbers spiking
Beilenson said the governor’s approach makes sense.
“We have to get the infection numbers under control now,” he said. “We’ll do it (implement the governor’s mandate) right away.”
He cited Sacramento’s fast-growing number of cases, often at more than 200 a day, and a new spike in hospitalizations for COVID-19, and in seriously ill patients needing intensive care treatment.
Sacramento County now has 175 patients hospitalized and 58 in the ICU with confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to state data. That’s a jump of 18 new patients in one day, a record one-day spike in Sacramento.
Beilenson said he believes the business closing will not strike at the entire heart of the infection crisis. He said more people need to wear masks, and in particular, to stop having group gatherings indoors, notably friends and family at homes.
“Part of it has to be about personal responsibility,” he said.
“I really think there should be an explicit no gathering outdoors of more than X number of people,” he said. “We are thinking about doing it” in Sacramento’s County’s local virus order, “but it would be helpful if the governor did it.”
Yolo and Placer leaders upset
Chairs of the Yolo and Placer boards of supervisors expressed frustration with what they see as a state approach that is unnecessarily harming businesses.
“I’m worried these piecemeal measures will not give us the tools we need to get this virus under control,” said Yolo County Board of Supervisors chair Gary Sandy.
Sandy said he would like to see more resources invested in regional approaches to containing the spread, like mobile testing sites that can reach and monitor under-resourced communities more easily, or pooling together money for larger personal protective equipment orders to secure masks and cleaning supplies faster.
“I’m very concerned we’re simply crushing our business community in a way that they won’t be able to bounce back from,” Sandy said. “I’m trying to get a handle on the numbers and pinpoint precisely where those infections are occurring.”
Bonnie Gore, chair of the Placer County board of supervisors, bristled at the new shutdown order. Placer officials did not issue a formal county comment on the governor’s edict.
Speaking personally, though, Gore said she understands the need to reduce the virus spread, but focusing on closing businesses is not the way.
“The data in Placer County does not link the spread of the virus to these businesses and their workers,” she said. “We have not seen data linked to fitness centers, churches, hair salons or to the Galleria (mall in Roseville).”
In Placer, as in many other places, much of the spread is being attributed to non-work related gatherings. Infection investigations show that indoor gatherings are more dangerous than outdoors, such as in bars and restaurants, and that some large infection clusters have occurred involving church-goers.
“It is very frustrating to have our business sectors have to shut down,” Gore said. “This is why it is important we have local control versus a one size fits all approach. We have been advocating for local control. Now we are going to continue to cripple our economy. It lacks logic.”
Blow to businesses
For many businesses, Newsom’s order came as a major blow after several weeks of cautious recovery. “There was some optimism, some hope that they had weathered the storm,” said Spradlin, of Arden Fair mall.
“The reality is, every time a center closes, it just puts that much more financial stress on tenants and their ability to reopen,” he said. Arden Fair will try to revive curbside pickup service for its stores, assuming that’s permitted under the governor’s directive, he said.
Missy O’Daniel, owner of Allure Salon and Spa in downtown Sacramento, said she implemented a rigorous sanitation program when she reopened, going so far as to require customers to don a fresh mask supplied by the salon.
“I would love to invite the governor in so he could see,” said O’Daniel, whose salon is across the street from the historic Governor’s Mansion.
She said she’s having to dip into savings and her inheritance. “That’s the only thing that’s going to keep my salon going,” she said.
The decision shocked at least one clergy leader, Pastor Sam Rodriguez of New Season Christian Worship Center in Sacramento, which reopened with limited seating on Pentecost Sunday in late May.
“I understand the spike (in cases),” Rodriguez said. “It’s serious, it’s measurable.” But he said Newsom’s decision on religious services seems “arbitrary” and needs to be explained better.
At his church, congregants have been having their temperatures taken and following other guidelines to stay safe. “Everyone is social distancing; masks mandatory,” he said. “We took no chances whatsoever.”
Bayside Church, which serves thousands of congregants at its sanctuary in Granite Bay and six other area locations, just reopened three weeks ago but “it looks like we are returning to 100 percent online,” said spokesman Mark Miller.
“There’s really no substitute for being in person, even if it’s only 100 people,” Miller said, referring to the cap on attendance the past few weeks. “We were operating in a safe manner.”
Fitness center owner angry
Adam Attia, owner of Fitness Rangers gym in East Sacramento, said the governor’s latest announcement was “crushing.”
“It’s horrible the way the governor has responded to this,” Attia said, adding that the new order will mark the third time he has had to shutter his 10,000-square-foot gym since March. “It has been completely debilitating and crushing to our economy and our small businesses.
“And the aftereffects are far more harmful than the actual effects. Suicide rates are up, obesity is up, diabetes is up, child abuse is up, domestic violence is up. It’s just unreal. It just blows my mind.”
Attia said his gym reopened on June 12 and “was getting back to normal.”
“People were coming back in, they were happy and being healthy again and getting back in shape,” he said. “I got my team back, I actually hired some new trainers.”
The gym also was strictly observing spacing and cleaning requirements, Attia said, with each client having 250 square feet of space, each person wearing a face mask and professional cleaners coming in every night.
“We were literally the safest place to go in Sacramento,” he said, adding that he had no problems with anyone falling ill and that his client list, which had been 565 when he closed in March, had been built back up to 300.
After the first two shutdowns, Attia said he tried to keep his workforce intact and on the payroll.
“We had 46 employees when we originally shut down,” Attia said. “I kept all 46 on the payroll for 12 weeks, and I did not pay myself a dollar. We reopened for three days and then again we were shut down a second time and I retained 28 employees.
“As of an hour ago, I had 26 employees and I’m going to furlough them all.”
Meanwhile, California Family Fitness, the biggest local fitness chain in the region with 19 gyms, had reopened all but two of its clubs on a gradual basis in the weeks since fitness centers had been allowed back open. Cal Fit had adjusted its business hours across the board and dedicated a daily 90-minute break at all locations to deep cleaning equipment and surfaces. It made masks mandatory during workouts July 1, in line with state requirements.
According to its website, the company had set Monday as its “anticipated” reopening date for its final two remaining clubs — its downtown location and another in North Highlands.
Instead, those two stayed shut down, and the chain’s other 17 locations spread out across Sacramento and Placer counties joined them.
Early Monday afternoon, calls to California Family Fitness were directed to a voicemail informing members that all of its locations, as well as its corporate office, are now temporarily closed once again. Gym memberships will be in a frozen status “until further notice,” and members were advised to check the company’s website for status updates. Blindsided as many businesses were, the website as of 2 p.m. did not yet reflect the closure.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 12:18 PM.