area newsletter APRIL 2020 • LOS ANGELES
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Community News Before L.A. reopens, these five things must happen
between people. Schools will have to establish new
As officials weigh lifting or relaxing stay-at-home
stay-at-home order went into effect March 19.
orders, Gov. Gavin Newsom is offering a framework for resuscitating California’s comatose economy. Once coronavirus-related hospitalizations have flattened or declined for at least two weeks, six conditions must be met for the stay-at-home order to be eased. The state must be able to: 1) Increase testing capacity to detect and isolate people infected by COVID-19. 2) Protect seniors and other vulnerable groups such as people with underlying health conditions. 3) Ensure resources for healthcare workers, including protective equipment. 4) Pursue treatments with scientists and health experts. 5) Ensure businesses and schools enforce physical distancing after they reopen. 6) Draft new enforcement strategies in case stay-athome orders need to be reinstated. Newsom has stressed that even when the economy is reopened, it will not mark a return to normalcy. Instead, restaurants may require staff to wear masks and gloves, patrons may need to have their temperature checked before they are seated, and the number of tables will be dramatically reduced to increase the physical space
restrictions for recess and physical education classes. As well, public officials will need to ensure recreational areas are frequently and thoroughly disinfected. California’s
Metro’s $2-billion Crenshaw line delayed LA Metro’s $2.06-billion transit line from Mid-City to the South Bay will miss its stop again. Work on the 8.5-mile Crenshaw Line will not finish until the end of this year or early 2021 because crews have been forced to redo construction work, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke ground on the project in 2014 for a projected 2019 opening. According to the Times, issues include settlement in walls that support a rail bridge over La Brea Avenue, as well as flaws in the steel structure anchoring the tracks. It will now be mid-2021 at the earliest before riders can catch a train between El Segundo and Mid-City.
Silenced neighborhoods cheer on healthcare workers Those aren’t coyotes howling at the moon. Lockeddown Los Angeles residents are opening their windows
Community News and balconies every night to whoop, holler and applaud
available. March had 24 days with a daily air quality
the healthcare workers combating the COVID-19
score below 50, indicating air that’s healthy even for
pandemic. Each night at 8 p.m. – in neighborhoods
people with respiratory problems. March 2019 had
across Los Angeles as well as the county – people are
14 days that good by comparison — and that was the
participating in a ritual that has spread around the
cleanest the air had been in more than a decade. In
world wherever the virus has struck. First, it was the
April, L.A. had some of the cleanest air of any major
residents of Wuhan, China, singing and clapping every
city on the planet, according to IQAir, a Swiss air
night, then Italians and then New Yorkers. Now the
quality technology company that monitors pollution.
practice is recognized as not only as a salute to medical
Some experts speculate the air hasn’t been this
professionals but as an emotional release for a society
pristine in Southern California since the 1940s.
April. “I never believed it would take off like this,”
Plans for $500-million skyscraper moving forward
council president Patti Berman told the AP.
Development of a $500-million downtown
shut off from itself. In downtown Los Angeles, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council has encouraged residents to howl into the night throughout
skyscraper is pushing forward despite the economic devastation created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project by Australian developer Crown Group would include a 160-room luxury hotel as well as condos in a 43-story
Air cleanest in decades during shutdown The worst public health crisis in decades has led to the cleanest air in a generation. According to the March 2020 air quality index compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, the air in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic shutdown hasn’t been this “good” since 1980, the earliest year such data is
tower designed by Koichi Takada Architects, the Los Angeles Times reported. The skyscraper — intended to conjure images of a California redwood tree with a pointed roof and leafy street level — would open in 2025. Although the city has yet to approve it, construction is targeted to begin by the end of the year. Crown Group bought the property at Hill and 11th streets in 2018.
Spotlight
THE NEW NORMAL AND WHAT’S NEXT Like all viruses, the coronavirus is evolving. But so are we. How close we stand to each other. How often we wash our hands. How we react when someone coughs behind us. The question isn’t when will things return to normal, but what will normal actually look like? From how we work to where we eat to what we watch, here are some possibilities — none of them as dystopian as you might expect and a few that might even be considered upgrades.
THE OFFICE Less of a shock than a confirmation, recent events have made it clear the traditional office is all but obsolete. Thanks to email, chats and videoconferencing, people can easily work from home. Expect this transition to only accelerate after the pandemic has ended. Physical workplaces will disappear while employees become completely wired. For frontline workers, we can hope they might emerge better appreciated — and hopefully, better compensated.
COMPANIONSHIP Facetime, Skype and Zoom aren’t going anywhere, but if you want proof that humans still need actual warmblooded, in-person companionship just consider the number of people who adopted or fostered a dog, cat or other animal during the past few weeks. We are cautiously optimistic, but have you ever heard of another time when shelters everywhere were empty?
ENTERTAINMENT Whether we are watching Saturday Night Live being assembled via chat or the Rolling Stones performing from their individual homes for stuck-at-home fans, the shutdown has transformed even our concept of what entertainment looks like. The crisis has also accelerated one trend well underway: streaming sites are booming while movie theaters are empty. The question is, when the pandemic ends, will the crowds return? Restaurant
Restaurant
Restaurant
Spotlight
HEALTH CARE Some have suggested the COVID-19 pandemic could galvanize Americans to strengthen the social safety net and move toward universal health care. More realistically, healthcare technology will undergo the most lasting change. Telemedicine, which has been an after-thought for many patients, will become much more commonplace. In addition to expediting service, it will also improve care in general. Staying home for a video call keeps you out of the waiting room and away from patients who need critical care.
THE ENVIRONMENT One of the revelations of the crisis has been how quickly the planet and other species benefit with humans sidelined — whether how clear the air is in Los Angeles or how sea turtles are thriving from Thailand to Florida because beaches are closed. A pandemic should not be needed to remind people of their impact on the world. Hopefully, they don’t forget when it’s over.
EATING Even when the stay-at-home order is lifted, dining out is not going to return to prepandemic levels of social interaction. Gov. Gavin Newsom has already said servers may be masked, the number of tables will be cut in half and patrons may be prodded for their temperature. In the meantime, people may be ordering delivery, but they are also buying and preparing their own meals and perhaps discovering the simple benefits of cooking.
HOW WE TREAT OURSELVES AND OTHERS Is the handshake extinct? Whatever the long-term social repercussions of COVID-19 are, hopefully some things we have learned or relearned endure: wash your hands, wash your food, watch where you cough, stay home when you’re sick, pollute less, think about adopting or fostering an animal from your local shelter and maybe call your elderly loved ones more often.
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