Pasadena Businesses, School Officials Growing Eager to Reopen as County’s COVID-19 Outlook Improves

Progress in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic statewide and throughout Los Angeles County in recent weeks has prompted some business and educational leaders in Pasadena to call for quicker action to reopen segments of society long closed in response to the virus.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors moved Tuesday to begin the process of considering waivers to allow some schools in the county to begin reopening to serve students in kindergarten through second grade. The Pasadena Public Health Department, however, has yet to make any announcements regarding the school waiver process.

State health officials cleared the way last week for nail salons to resume operations across the state, with county approval, at 25 percent capacity. Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said on Wednesday the County will allow nail salons to open soon.

Pasadena officials are working now on establishing ways to allow some businesses to open in the next 10 days, including nail salons and indoor shopping malls.

The county had been teetering on the edge of moving from the state’s most-restrictive COVID-19 county monitoring status, Tier 1, or “Purple,” into Tier 2, or “Red,” as of Tuesday, L.A. County Department of Public Health officials said. But it has not maintained state guidelines for two consecutive weeks to move into Tier 2 status.

“We are obligated to follow the state framework,” said Pasadena Director of Public Health Dr. Ying-Ying Goh.

“L.A County’s aggregated data [including Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments]  puts all three public health jurisdictions in the purple, most restrictive tier this week, as there was a slight increase in cases last week,” Goh said. “The metric has a built-in seven-day lag.”

While progress has been encouraging in recent weeks, COVID-19 remains very real and very dangerous public safety threat, according to Dr. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease and internal medicine specialist at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena.

“Although we are currently experiencing a lower number of cases and a lower death rate, the pandemic is far from over,” Shriner said. “There remains a tremendous amount of coronavirus disease in the community and we must remember that most of us have no immunity. It continues to be a significant health threat to all of us. Until we have a vaccine or better treatment, we must be vigilant about wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and following the science about this disease.”

Goh reminded the public that they are not merely bystanders to the pandemic, but have a direct impact on it through their actions.

“If our data continues to improve, we will be able to consider additional reopenings, but this will only be possible if people continue to wear face coverings, not gather with people outside their households, and wash their hands,” she said. “We hope that COVID-19 cases will continue to decline so additional sectors can open.”

Growing frustrated over the official response to the pandemic, the region’s largest indoor mall operator, Westfield, with a location in Arcadia, filed legal action against L.A. County on Monday, alleging the ordered closures of the company’s shopping centers was “unjustifiable,” City News Service reported, citing court documents.

Pasadena Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Paul Little said while he understands the needs for regulations in order to stem the spread of COVID-19, closure orders and restrictions placed on business have been applied too broadly.

“I think they’re painting everything with a broad brush and there are a lot of nuances that could have been taken into account, which is difficult to do from the governor’s mansion in Sacramento,” he said. “More leeway could have been given to local health departments, especially about things like yoga studios and fitness studios and some other things; indoor dining at smaller capacities, those kinds of things.”

Businesses that are strictly adhering to safety protocols should not be grouped in with the minority that don’t, Little said.

“The key to it all really is that businesses that are following the protocols and keeping people safe and not having cases among staff members or customers shouldn’t be lumped in with the folks that are not obeying the rules and creating problems, including health problems,” he said.

“The folks that are following the rules and keeping everyone safe should, in my mind, be able to be open at that safe capacity,” Little added. “I don’t think anybody should go to 100 percent at this point, but there certainly are ways to make activities safe for customers and staff.”

Little said he hoped to see action soon.

“We have to see how things go this week and then maybe next week we can move up to Tier 2, which would allow for some more reopening, assuming cases don’t spike again, which is always the worry,” he said.

With respect to local schools, Pasadena Unified School District Vice President Scott Phelps said he believes the time to transition from 100 percent online instruction to a hybrid program of both online and in-person instruction has arrived.

“When I weigh the detrimental effects of closure on the neediest students, special education students, students who are learning English… students that are just suffering from not being around their friends, the missing out on socialization… that to me outweighs the adults’ concerns about contracting the virus. I think there are safe ways,” he said.

Slow negotiations with the teacher’s union aren’t helping matters, according to Phelps. “They’re not in any hurry, which is disappointing to me,” he said. “There’s a noticeable lack of urgency in the negotiations. So that is bothering me because, as a board member, our code of ethics demands that we put children first, not adults first.”

Just like some parents may not yet be comfortable returning their children to in-person instruction, an option could be developed to allow educators to make a similar choice, choosing to continue teaching remotely, under the hybrid system, Phelps said.

“I’m looking to Orange County, which, as you may know, is opening in-person schooling in various districts,” he added. “So I’m looking to see how that goes.

“I think you can do it safely,” Phelps said. “I think fear is too big a part of this right now. We’ve got to give the kids a little more.”

Patrick Shopbell, who has two children in the eighth grade in a PUSD school, said he and his kids had mixed feelings about the idea of returning to campus.

“It’s a two-edged sword. We want to get back to some of these things, but at the same time it’s not going to help you if  you do it, and then two weeks later you realize, ‘Oh, wow, it’s going to come back up, and so striking that balance I think is really hard.”

Online instruction seemed to be going better in the fall than in the spring, Shopbell said.

“There are certain classes like, like band, for example, they really enjoy in-person,” he said. “There’s a lot of talking and not as much playing of instruments and things. “

At the same time, “I still get the impression from my kids, that,  if they decided that we could go back in some hybrid form, I think they’d still be a little nervous about it.”

“I guess the scary part to me is: Does that kind of stuff continue for a few months or does it continue for another year until we’re all comfortable? I don’t know. That’s really hard to know.”