Los Angeles is closed.
The mayor of Los Angeles closed down the city on March 15th, 2020. The governor followed the next day shutting down the entire state on March 16th, 2020, with a “shelter in place “order. Since that time all schools, restaurants and bars, churches, parks have been closed. The beaches are closed. Our famous hiking trails throughout Los Angeles are closed. All movie theaters, museums, any place where people would gather are closed. This is what it’s like living in Los Angeles, California, in the time of plague.
When I first came to Los Angeles in 1984, it was already an overpopulated city. There were too many people, traffic jams, incredible air pollution, a growing homeless problem, and you had to add 20 minutes to any trip that you were going to take anywhere in the city just to be on there on time. But it was also the capital of filmmaking in the entire world and I wanted to be in the entertainment business, plus it had great beaches, incredible sunsets and that incomparably great weather.
Thirty-eight years later, it’s even more crowded. The traffic jams are even worse. You have to add 45 minutes to any trip that you’re going to take now. The pollution is a lot better, but our homeless problem has grown to such proportions that by itself is larger than most mid-sized cities in the United States. It’s still the movie capital of the world but there’s now five world class museums, two sports teams in every major category: baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer. And still we have those incredible beaches and sunsets, and still enjoy the best weather in America.
But Los Angeles is closed.
I’ve been sheltering in place since March 16th. On the 15th, two days before Saint Patrick’s Day, I went out to an Irish bar and had a Guinness while sitting in the most distant corner of the bar to keep social distance between myself and others. Other than going to a grocery store or a pharmacy that’s the only human interaction I’ve had since March 16th. I have a roommate, so I have someone to talk to. But I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who lived by themselves and can’t venture out. Humans are made and programmed to be around other humans and to not have any human contact is almost inconceivable.
Few days ago, I was allowed the opportunity to take a Corona virus test. The week before I had reached out online to the testing authority here in Los Angeles to see if I had symptoms of the virus, and I was told that I didn’t and stay home. But then I was contacted by them because I fit into a certain age category and have an underlying health condition. They allowed me to come be tested. It was very strange as the photographs show. It took place in a large parking lot of a church. Everyone was dressed in hazmat suits and you were told to roll down your window just a little bit so they could slip you a test kit. No one personally tested me. Those photographs or videos that you see on the television or online of someone sticking a swab up another person’s nose didn’t happen for me. What happened was they gave me a plastic bag with a swab inside of it, a small vial filled with a toxic liquid, a list of instructions and two smaller plastic bags. The man who handed it to me at the side of my car told me what I needed to do. Then he asked me to repeat it back to him, and then he told me the instructions one more time. At that point, I was supposed to pull off to the side in the parking space and perform the test myself.
I was supposed to open the kit and take out the swab. Then I was to swab the inside of my mouth three times. Then I was to break the swab in half so it would fit into the small vial with the toxic liquid and close it. I was warned several times not to let this liquid spill on me. Then I was to take that vial and put it in the smallest plastic bag and seal it. Then place that bag in the next size bag and seal that one. And finally put that bag in the bag that the test kit came in and seal it. I was then to drive to the exit of the parking lot and throw the bag in a large container that had all the other test kits that had been used. That was 10 days ago. I still don’t have my test results. And I have my doubts that that is the most effective way to test people for coronavirus. What if they don’t understand the instructions? What if they get confused? What if they don’t do the test in the correct way? Don’t think that’s the most effective way to do it. No human interaction whatsoever. Self-testing seems like it leaves a lot of room for confusion and improper testing.
Three days ago, I was so stir crazy that I decided to drive down to Santa Monica. Just to see what there was to see. Nothing. Empty streets. Closed stores. Hardly anyone on the street at all. The 3rd Street Promenade and Santa Monica Pier were completely closed and empty of anyone. Standing on the cliffs overlooking Santa Monica beaches, they were completely empty.
There was a movie that came out in 1959 or 1960, that I remember seeing as I was growing up. It starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire. It was called On The Beach. It was based on a controversial book that had come out in the late 50’s about a possible nuclear war that happens between the Soviet Union and the United States. The war happens and the fallout from the radiation kills everyone on the planet. Gregory Peck is the commander of a submarine that was at sea when the attacks happen and, they survive. The eerie scene of the submarine sailing into San Francisco Bay to find nothing. The city wasn’t blown up, it was just empty of people. No one there. Empty streets, empty buildings, just empty. And that’s what Santa Monica reminded me of. It was very spooky and eerie and unsettling.
What will life look like on the other side of this plague. Will we remember to be nicer to each other as we are now? Will we maintain the slow pace of life that we have managed to accomplish now? Will the pollution continue to get better because there are less cars and less movement on the streets now? Or will it return to the way that it was before with overcrowded freeways, and the hustle and bustle of a massive city.
Life will begin to return to normal. Movie theaters will open, churches will open, schools will open, restaurants and bars will open, and life will begin to return to something that resembles normal. The beaches will open. The parks will open. And there’s still the incredible sunsets and the beautiful weather. Right now that’s in the future and no one knows when that will happen.
Los Angeles lives one day at a time. Some people still go to work but many people have lost their jobs because film production is stopped, and the service industry of bars and restaurants have shut down. And the ripple effect has affected almost everyone that I know. Whether they are renters or homeowners or landlords or just regular business owners because all nonessential businesses have closed as well. Los Angeles is closed. And we don’t know when it’s going to reopen.
When it does, those of us that live here hope you come back because our city exists on tourism as a major source of our income. But will you want to come here? Will you trust that you can fly in a plane and not catch the virus? Will you want to be on the Hollywood Walk of fame with hundreds of other people, will you want to go to our fabulous beaches with hundreds of other people, or want to go to our museums, the 3rd St promenade, and the Santa Monica pier?
Los Angeles is closed. And the Los Angeles we used to know will be very different than the one that arrives when they finally lift the shelter in place order. And I wonder what that will be like?
We should be thankful all across the country for the men and women who work as doctors, nurses, EMT’s, grocery store clerks, people that restock stores, pharmacists and their colleagues in drug stores, Amazon drivers and UPS drivers, and the growing business of food delivery. All those people risk their lives every day being confronted with the possibility Covis-19. I don’t know that I could do their job. Yes, they’re making a living because they have to but they’re also brave. I really don’t know if I could stand behind a cash register as hundreds of people walked by me maybe with the disease or maybe not. The odds of not getting it are not Vegas odds, but they’re still not good.
In the meantime, please stay inside, when you go out wear a mask and remember social distancing. The reason that California, the most populous state in the United States, has some of the lowest Corona virus numbers is because our mayor and our governor got out in front of this and our curve is a lot lower than other places especially New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana.
Be careful, be safe and stay healthy.
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