Trips With James "shelter in place"

The City of Angels is awake. It’s not that it’s been asleep, it’s only been taking a nap. For the last three months, we have been doing what is known as ‘sheltering in place’. Meaning that our local government authorities wanted us to basically stay in our house and not go anywhere. And they did make that difficult because they closed all the beaches and the parks, all the bars and restaurants, and all the stores. So really where was there to go?

But finally we are starting to open. Bars and restaurants, barber shops and hair salons, nail salons and department stores are all open for some kind of business. But is it too much too soon or was this all Much Ado about nothing. It depends on who you talk to and what your opinion is of COVID-19. Is it a great pandemic or is it a left wing hoax?

Through history man has always dealt with pandemics before with diseases that could not be cured and that killed hundreds of thousands of people through the ages. There’s the Spanish flu of 1918, polio, black plague, measles, and one of the greatest diseases of all time although not many people think about it anymore is tuberculosis which for centuries all the way back to the Greeks was the greatest killer of humans on the planet. Of the five diseases that I just mentioned only two of them forced humans to change their lifestyle to such degree that it caused people to leave cities or to stay inside. That’s the black plague and the Spanish flu. The other diseases that I mentioned plus many others while horrible did not cause society to change. People caught these diseases and many died but the general population just went on living their lives. So which approach was the correct one? Well we’re told that the difference between this disease and other ones is that it’s so contagious and it has never appeared before on the planet. That we possess no natural defense for it. That’s why health officials said wear a mask, wash your hands, social distance and stay inside.

Bartender Jennifer Priddy, left, and bar manager Kandis Conner of The Blue Door Bar in Fullerton (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

People want to stay well . They don’t want to go out in public and get sick. But people also cannot stay home forever. It’s summer in Los Angeles and the sun is shining and the weather is perfect. And everyone in the city is suffering from Lock Down Fever. Even before the ‘shelter in place’ order was lifted since Easter you could already tell that people were beginning to disregard the laws. Gone were the empty freeways and the empty side streets and the empty parks. People began coming out more and more and driving places and riding bikes and getting out in the weather and just trying to find some normalcy in a time where there is no normalcy

For 2 1/2 months I stayed inside. I faithfully wore my mask, washed my hands and rarely went out except to go to a grocery store or pharmacy. I sanitize my kitchen every other day with Clorox wipes and every time I stepped back into the house I used hand sanitizer. I also carried hand sanitizer with me everywhere that I went . And I got it! I got a very mild case of it, but it got me. So, I am very scared of COVID-19. The idea of going to a restaurant or a bar is now almost frightening. While I understand that people have to get back to their daily lives and make a living, the casualness with which some seem to deal with COVID-19 to me is mind boggling.

The bars and restaurants in Los Angeles opened on June 5^th, and I ventured out to see what would happen. I live not far away from Culver City which for many years was a very sleepy little town that would close up at about 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon but now is a happening crossroads with 20 to 30 restaurants and bars in its downtown district. Culver City for movie aficionados is the home of MGM Studios which later became Sony Pictures. The area that I went to investigate was where Culver Blvd. crosses Main Street in Culver City.

In this area there are 25 bars and restaurants, a Trader Joe’s, and the world-famous Culver Hotel with its jazz club lobby all in a six block radius. The rules were that people had to wear masks as they came into the restaurant, sitting was limited to only 25% capacity and people needed to maintain social distance. Every place handled it differently but the idea of socially distancing when people have not been out in public for 3 months is kind of silly at best. People who wanted to come were doing so to see their friends and eat in a restaurant. Some were coming out in groups of 10 to 15 people and sitting at large tables. One restaurant known as Public School has a very extensive patio but they were only seating 4 tables on the patio at a time so there was immense space between those customers. However, you went around the corner to Roscoe’s Tavern where you were met at the door by a man wearing a mask who took your temperature and told you to wait until a table became available based on social distancing rules. Yet seated right next to the maitre-d’ and potential new customers less than two feet away was a table of 15 people all day eating, drinking and nobody had a mask on, so at best the results were mixed. There were new restaurants that had just opened few months before the COVID-19 fiasco hit and somehow they managed to hang onto their spaces for 2 1/2 months with no business and now they were just trying to make as much money as they could. There is a new Irish bar that had just opened about six months before COVID-19 hit with the social distant rules posted at the door but there was no one practicing social distance. In an Irish bar it’s impossible, it goes against the very fabric of an Irish bar.

(Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

I have taken an informal poll of my very good friends here in Los Angeles to see who was up for going out to grab something to eat or meet somebody in a bar for a drink. Well the results were pretty much 85% of those polled were not ready to come out because they were afraid of catching the virus in public, the other 15% couldn’t wait to go someplace where they could actually socially interact with other people.

Myself I’m kind of on the fence. Staying at home for 2 1/2 months and missing social interaction and the daily activities of my life was very difficult for me. I would honestly say that it affected my mental state. Yet the fear of catching this disease in a social setting when there is no cure and no vaccine scares me even more.

So, Los Angeles is open! But we are open with uncertainty! There is no clear path to the future, and it causes dismay and restless nights about what the future will hold for you as an individual, your city as a community and our country as a whole. New cases of COVID-19 , new hospitalizations and a rising death toll are concerning to health officials here while to others it’s just the price of living your life. Which is the right philosophy? Well that’s up to the individual but as we try to return to something that resembles normal life before the pandemic we’re actually looking at a whole new reality with no conclusion and no clear solution.

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 16^th, 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.

Tag: "shelter in place"

Los Angeles Is Closed

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