Last Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told residents in the U.S.’s second-largest city they must stop all travel – including “travel on foot” – and “cancel everything.”
“My message couldn’t be simpler: It’s time to hunker down. It’s time to cancel everything. And if it isn’t essential, don’t do it,” Garcetti said.
Forbidding them to celebrate the Christmas holiday spirit, His Honor declared,
“Don’t meet up with people outside your household. Don’t host the gathering, don’t attend a gathering, and follow our targeted safer-at-home order, if you’re able to stay home, stay home. Just be smart and stay apart.”
THE ORDER: All retailers must operate at 20 percent capacity, and food and drink cannot be consumed while inside these stores. All dining except for take-out is barred. Playgrounds, hair salons, and movie theaters must close… and to make sure kids are in bed early, he even ordered day camps for children to close down from 10 PM to 5 AM.
There are reports of growing dissent among small businesses who are lashing out at Garcetti’s orders as being arbitrary and irrational.
Angela Marsden, the owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill, showed a video of her restaurant that had a tent and seats for outdoor dining but was closed due to Garcetti’s order. She videoed a nearby TV show set that showed a similar setup, according to the paper. Ms. Marsden said,
“Tell me that this is dangerous, but right next to me – as a slap in my face – that’s safe?”… Mayor Garcetti and [Governor] Gavin Newsom are responsible for every single person that doesn’t have unemployment, that does not have a job, and all the businesses that are going under. And we need your help. We need somebody to do something about this.”
Newsom has also implemented new restrictions in the state that are set to span 21 days. These restrictions focus on travel and shopping.
The Times pointed out that orders restrict retail businesses to limit in-person shopping to 20 percent capacity and take-out service only at restaurants.
CNN reported that residents in southern California and San Joaquin Valley will be under the stay-at-home order because intensive care unit capacities dropped below 15 percent. The report said the order affects 27 million in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County. The region recorded 25,000 new cases on Saturday.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said.
Some local governments have taken a stand against dining restrictions, including Beverly Hills and Pasadena. Harmeet K. Dhillon, an influential lawyer in California, told The New York Times there is a risk the state could begin to have a “boy-who-cried-wolf situation.”
“People are going to say, ‘He [Newsom] said the hospitals would fill up in March and they didn’t,’” Dhillon wrote.
TREND FORECAST: THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE, POLITICIANS DO.
Los Angeles County has been locked down twice since March. Ten million people live in the area, and the death toll is around 7,740, which equals a 0.0774 percent death rate.
Over the course of nine months, there is a 0.0086 percent death toll in the county, and yet politicians in the state, led by Governor Gavin “French Laundry” Newsom, enacts policies that are destroying the economic lives of millions.
TREND FORECAST: Among the elements of the new Anti-tax platform will be cash-strapped constituents demanding politicians and public officials who order their businesses to close and put them out of work to take pay cuts themselves.
