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Restaurants seek help Local owners say they need more relief during pandemic
State unemployment rate at lowest point since March By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Aaron Petersen, who owns CHOMP on the Rocks at the Santa Barbara Harbor, said he hopes the desire to dine in person with music, wait service and views doesn’t go away completely.
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK
Schwartz to run for Santa Barbara mayor
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Congress failed Friday to finalize a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, and to local restaurant owners’ frustration, also failed to address any problems concerning the hospitality industry. There will be $300 billion in Payroll Protection Program funding if the bill can be passed after the government shutdown, but some argue that it’s not enough to get restaurants through the winter. The Independent Restaurant Coalition, a group of small restaurant owners that formed during the pandemic, is pushing Congress to pass the RESTAURANTS Act, a bill that would provide $120 billion in grants to smaller bars and restaurants, according to national media reports. While this bill received support of 50 sponsors in the Senate and more than 200 in the House, it was left out of the conversation and replaced with PPP loans. Sherry Villanueva owns a host of restaurants in Santa Barbara, including The Lark, Lucky Penny, Loquita, La Paloma, Santa Barbara Wine Collective, Pearl Social, Helena Avenue Bakery and Tyger Tyger. Five of those are still open for takeout, but three were forced to close. “My biggest issue is the way the PPP plan was calculated was to provide payroll relief for what surmounted to be about a 10-week solution and now we’re in month 11 of the crisis,” Ms. Villanueva told the News-Press. “A 10-week solution to a 10-month crisis just doesn’t work.” She said she supports the RESTAURANTS Act because the one thing restaurants don’t need is debt, which is what the loans ended up creating.
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
La Paloma Cafe on the corner of Anacapa and Ortega streets sat empty Friday.
“I think it’s harder with the independent restaurant industries because it’s not centralized … We’re talking about millions of businesses and 16 million workers, so it’s a much more nebulous industry to get your arms around, and I don’t know if that’s why Congress is having so much trouble figuring out what a fair solution is, but it’s very dire.” She added that without any sort of relief, the fate for many independent restaurants is closure, which will have a ripple effect on entire cities. At her restaurants, Ms. Villanueva said 100% of all PPP loans were spent on payroll, which did not help any of the
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other expenses associated with restaurants such as rent, utilities, insurance, taxes and more. In addition, spending tens of thousands of dollars on outdoor dining equipment and construction to stay open and then being forced to close, she said, did not help. “We’re willing to close and jump through hoops, but if we’re going to do that to support the nation, the nation needs to support the industry’s back,” she said. “We’ve done everything right.” Dario Dell’Anno is the general manager for S.Y. Kitchen and Nella Kitchen & Bar in Santa Ynez and Los Olivos, respectively. Both restaurants were forced to
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close completely, even without take-out, and Mr. Dell’Anno told the News-Press Friday that it’s hard to say how much money from the government would even be enough. “I think they should mobilize not just restaurants, but restaurants, nail salons, everything that’s in the group that had to close and maybe do a different stipulation for restaurants, because payroll is a lot higher in restaurants than those other businesses,” he said. “The profit is very low compared to revenue in restaurants, so that’s why restaurants are hurting so much right now — very little profit and high rent.” Please see restaurants on A10
In a rather early announcement on Wednesday, Planning Commissioner Deborah Schwartz shared with reporters that she is running for mayor next year. Her formal announcement will come later, but she told the NewsPress that conversations with community members pushed her to go “all in.” “It wasn’t my initial intention,” Ms. Schwartz said regarding her mayoral announcement. “But I’m talking with residents and business owners about the increasing concerns they have and it’s really pressed me to consider whether this is something that the economy wants.” She added that the incumbent Mayor Cathy Murillo announced her reelection campaign in September, which inspired her to “look carefully at my deep care for the community and whether or not I’m going to extend myself further in my public service.” Ms. Schwartz comes from a family of just that — her father spent 42 years as a professor at UCSB and her mother served 18 years as the chief of staff to former State Sen. Gary Hart and 12 years on the County Board of Supervisors. She went through Santa Barbara’s public school system and graduated from UCSB. Now, she’s a land use consultant and has served Santa Barbara’s Planning Commission for 11 years. While lacking a formal
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Current city Planning Commissioner Deborah Schwartz has announced she will run for Santa Barbara mayor next year.
announcement or a campaign team at this stage in the game, Ms. Schwartz has two campaign promises: an official economic development plan and a strategic homelessness plan. “We have so many lives and livelihoods on the line, so an economic development plan that is still not forthcoming from within city staff is critical,” she said. “We still have not seen a short- or longterm economic development plan, so I am going to champion the development and introduction of that, and of course, we need action items associated with it.” She said it’s not enough to make Please see schwartz on A4
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California’s unemployment rate dropped nearly one percentage point to 8.2% in November, as the state’s employers added 57,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the California Employment Development Department. Locally, the unemployment rate in Santa Barbara County was 5.8% for November, down from a revised 6.1% in October. The November 2020 unemployment rate was above the November 2019 rate of 3.2%. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 7.9% for California and 6.4% for the nation during the same period, according to the EDD Labor Market Information Division. Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate, which trended below 6% from December 2018 to February 2020, spiked to nearly 14% in April of 2020 and has been steadily declining over the past seven months, according to the data. Santa Barbara County has a labor force of 213,600, with 201,300 people employed and 12,300 unemployed. Compared to other local counties, Ventura County has an unemployment rate of 6.3% for November, while San Luis Obispo County has an unemployment rate of 5.4%.
In total, Santa Barbara County added 1,200 nonfarm jobs from October to November, though the county lost an estimated 1,800 farming jobs and was down 600 jobs across all industries over the past month. The county’s trade, transportation and utilities sector added 500 jobs from October to November, as well as 400 government jobs, 400 leisure and hospitality jobs, 300 educational and health services jobs and 100 professional and business services jobs. Month-over job losses were noted in the following sectors: manufacturing (down 400 jobs); construction (down 100) and mining, logging and construction (down 100). In terms of year-over job losses, preliminary data for November 2020 indicates a 13,600 job decrease for all industries compared to November 2019, though an increase of 300 total farm jobs. The largest year-over decreases for Santa Barbara County include: leisure and hospitality (down 4,600 jobs from November 2019); trade, transportation and utilities (down 2,600 jobs); government (down 2,400 jobs); educational and health services (down 1,300); other services (down 1,000); manufacturing (down 900); professional and business services (down 700); information (down Please see jobs on A4
Obituaries........... A10 Sudoku................. A8 Weather.............. A10
Wednesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-6-11-12-17 Meganumber: 9
Friday’s DAILY 4: 7-6-9-8
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 7-15-25-51-60 Meganumber: 5
Friday’s FANTASY 5: 5-11-15-27-36
Friday’s DAILY DERBY: 07-06-10 Time: 1:47.61
Wednesday’s POWERBALL: 4-23-37-61-67 Meganumber: 7
Friday’s DAILY 3: 9-2-7 / Sunday’s Midday 0-6-2