area newsletter APRIL 2020 • WESTSIDE
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Community News Roadmap to reopening state laid out – but no return to normal As officials weigh lifting or relaxing stay-at-home 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 stayat-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
between people. Schools will have to establish new restrictions for recess and physical education classes. As well, public officials will need to ensure recreational areas are frequently and thoroughly disinfected. California’s stay-at-home order went into effect March 19.
Subway work ramped up while streets are empty LA Metro and the Beverly Hills City Council have sped up construction of the Wilshire/Rodeo subway station, a section of the much-anticipated D-Line extension that will bring the subway from downtown L.A. to the Westwood/Veteran Affairs hospital. Beverly Hills City Council voted to temporarily close Wilshire Boulevard in both directions between North Beverly Drive and North Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills. This is allowing crews to work seven days a week during a period where businesses are shut down and streets are empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The work had previously been scheduled to occur during weekends. The closure is expected to last up to three months — or until the stay-at-home is lifted. Construction is considered “essential” work. This second phase of the D Line extension — from Beverly Hills to Century City — is projected to open in 2025. All three phases of the D Line should be finished in 2027.
Community News Prince Harry and Meghan Markle deliver meals to the vulnerable Marking one of their first public outings since moving to L.A., Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spent time recently delivering meals to West Hollywood residents too sick to leave their homes. According to reports, the couple partnered with Project Angel Food, which delivers prepared meals to people with life-threatening illnesses. Markle was reportedly impressed by the group’s determination to work despite the pandemic. The couple delivered about 20 meals, following social distancing guidelines, keeping at least six feet away from others, even when delivering the food, as well as wearing masks and gloves. The couple originally moved to Canada after stepping down from the royal family, but have since decided to call California home.
Neighborhoods cheer on healthcare workers Those aren’t coyotes howling at the moon. Lockeddown Los Angeles residents are opening their windows and balconies every night to whoop, holler and applaud the healthcare workers combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Each night at 8 p.m. – in neighborhoods across Los Angeles as well as the county – people are participating in a ritual that has spread around the world wherever the virus has struck. First, it was the residents of Wuhan, China, singing and clapping every
night, then Italians and then New Yorkers. Now the practice is recognized as not only as a salute to medical professionals but as an emotional release for a society shut off from itself. In downtown Los Angeles, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council has encouraged residents to howl into the night throughout April. “I never believed it would take off like this,” council president Patti Berman told the AP.
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 available. March had 24 days with a daily air quality score below 50, indicating air that’s healthy even for people with respiratory problems. March 2019 had 14 days that good by comparison — and that was the cleanest the air had been in more than a decade. In April, L.A. had some of the cleanest air of any major city on the planet, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company that monitors pollution. Some experts speculate the air hasn’t been this pristine in Southern California since the 1940s.
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? Pasjoli
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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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