Reopening: County Color-Coded Plan Can Mean Different Rules For Businesses On Same Block
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Under the new color-coded, four-tiered plan, Bay Area businesses in some areas are reopening unevenly based on county lines that don't line up with the State of California.
A stark example of that is found in the 6000 block of Mission Street, on the San Francisco/San Mateo County line.
On the San Mateo County side, you can get your hair done indoors. On the other side of the line is the city and county of San Francisco, the only county in the Bay Area where you cannot get your hair done indoors.
On Thursday, KPIX5 observed barbers on the San Mateo County side of the line, hard at work cutting hair indoors. But on the San Francisco side, the shops were closed.
"It's ridiculous. So if I hop on this side … 'oh my God, it's illegal, I'm going to get my license revoked,'" said Alexandra Flores, the owner of a hair studio called Alexandra Glam, which is inside a Daly City storefront that is under renovation. "If I work on this [San Mateo County] side, I'm booming, I'm making business," she said.
"Just open up San Francisco, please. This is my hometown … I'm about to shed a tear right now, just thinking about it, you know," said Randy Tagle, owner of Caken' Cuts hair salon in San Francisco.
Tagle's salon has been shut down since March.
"If they keep it for too much longer, I'm not sure how much longer I can open up. This is my business, this is my whole life savings into it. It's tough."
San Francisco officials did not want to talk about it on camera, but they are proceeding much more slowly with COVID-19 reopening than the state is allowing.
For example, the state says you can open indoor dining if you are in the red like San Francisco, Napa and now Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. But in San Francisco, only outdoor dining is allowed. The state says you can get your hair done indoors across the state, even in the purple counties like San Mateo, which have more widespread virus than the red counties. Still, San Francisco does not plan to open hair salons until the end of September.
San Francisco's Department of Public Health says the main reason it is being so careful is because the city is more densely populated and a COVID-19 outbreak can happen much more quickly and overwhelm the system.
"San Francisco is a dense urban City, we must be more vigilant. As long as San Francisco continues to make progress slowing the spread of COVID-19 we can get businesses and workers back on their feet," the SFDPH said in a statement.
