San Francisco Reopening Announcement Causes Confusion
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Tuesday marks a new phase for hair and nail salons, barber shops and massage studios in San Francisco. They will be allowed to reopen for limited outdoor services. But the announcement -- timed with the state's unveiling of its new tiered reopening system -- has led to false hope for some.
"Restaurants were e-mailing me saying 'isn't it awesome we can reopen on Monday' and I'm like no, that's not how it works," said Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.
Co-owner of MX3 Fitness Dave Karraker was fielding the same types of responses.
"I've never received more calls from our clients saying, 'We're on the state website, it says gyms in San Francisco are open now at 10%.' and I just say, 'No, no no,'" Karraker said.
That's because it is ultimately up to counties to decide when businesses can reopen.
The state's website, which launched on Friday, allows people to check what's open in their counties. For example, it shows that restaurants in San Francisco can open indoors at 25% capacity. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association says this initially created false hope.
"The city's always said, 'Look, we're on a slower, more cautious train than the state,'" Thomas said. "And the way that it was rolled out, again, I don't think there was any mal-intent, but I'm still dealing with it three days later."
The city most recently said fitness studios and gyms can reopen outdoors on Sept. 9. But, like many other operations, MX3 Fitness in the Castro has been operating outdoors under the Shared Spaces program since early July.
"This is just more of the whiplash that we've been experiencing since March, where the state says one thing and the county and the city says something else," said Karraker. "So we've been ping-ponging back and forth never knowing what's going to happen next."
Mayor London Breed is expected to give an update on reopening in San Francisco Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. It will be carried live on KPIX.com.
