Vocal Anti-Lockdown Protesters Call on Livermore Mayor to Reopen City
LIVERMORE (KPIX) -- Anti-lockdown protests have been sprouting up across the country and California in recent weeks. On Saturday that movement, as some have described it, came to Livermore.
"We're not making any kind of statement other than the fact that we love our small businesses," Len Digiovanni told a cheering crowd in downtown Livermore.
They met beneath the Livermore flagpole and they brought plenty of flags with them. To sum up their sentiments on the shelter-in-place order: they've had enough.
"I'm just, I'm just done with it," protester Ron Spencer said.
Len Digiovanni was one of the business owners behind the protest,
"We want to get the city council and the business owners together, you know, to aggressively work something out to get our businesses reopened again," Digiovanni said of his goals for the gathering.
Livermore mayor John Marchand said no one involved with Saturday's protest has reached out to him and he's quick to point out that these decisions are being made beyond city limits.
"I get it," Marchand said. "We are all frustrated but these are not city rules. These are the rules that came from the Alameda County Public Health Department and the state. I can't open the city. We need to convince the county that Livermore is ready to open and events like today aren't going to help."
Across the street from the protest, there were a few raised eyebrows.
"I understand what they're trying to do and everyone has their own opinion," a passerby named Angela said. "But at least try to separate a little bit is what I'm thinking."
"We understand that there are diversity of opinions about what's going on," Digiovanni said. "We appreciate that."
But the message from this crowd was clear: their patience is wearing thin.
"If it goes on too much longer like this it will be past the point of no return," Spencer said of small businesses. "We will not recover."
